I was watching America's Got Talent last night, and during the opening credits was struck by the number of executive producers listed. It seems to grow longer each year.
They are (from the official NBC site):
Executive producers: Simon Cowell, Cecile Frot-Coutaz, Ken Warwick, Jason Raff, and Georgie Hurford-Jones
Co-executive producers: Nikki Boella, James McKinlay, Tabitha Hanson-Obtulowicz
Executive in Charge of Production: Tiffany Hoss, Charlie Krestul
Now I understand Simon Cowell and Ceicle Frot-Coutaz. He is head of the production company SYCO TV, and she is the CEO of FremantleMedia North America, which produce the show. And Ken Warwick is an executive producer and showrunner for American Idol. (Not clear if he is is also a showrunner at AGT.)
But who are all these other seven EPs? None of them have entries in Wikipedia.
The executive producer entry in Wikipedia indicates there can be several types of executive producer: traditional EPs (production executives, financiers, etc.), head writer(s), and showrunner(s).
I can't see how there could be more than one head writer -- host Nick Cannon is the only one that appears to have a script. AGT is making a ton of money, so it wouldn't seem there would need to be a lot of investors.
Do they really need ten chefs in the kitchen?
Answer
These days it is more common for people to 'buy' themselves a credit on TV and film productions through financial backing, sponsorship or other enabling methods.
Traditionally (at least on film), the executive producer(s) coughed up the money to get the production rolling - they generally wouldn't have any other impact on the production. Of course, there are a few horror stories about executive producers only providing finances on the proviso that their terrible niece got a role, or they could sit in on the set (and interfere).
In the case of AGT, I suspect that this roster of EPs is made up mostly of financial backers.
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