Hi, it's Bob Safian. You've been hearing me as the host of rapid response in this feed for a few years now,

with short newsy interviews alongside the deeper dives of Masters of Scale. Well, I'm excited to share that rapid response is expanding into its own feed.

We'll be putting out shows twice a week, focusing on the urgent issues that business leaders are dealing with in real time.

So search for rapid response in your podcast player and subscribe to make sure you get all our episodes.

I'll see you on the other side.

Every executive and every entrepreneur will face moments of truth.

Moments when their skill is judged, when their worth is determined,

when the powers that be will cast their votes

and determine if your project or company lives or dies.

Barry Diller was facing one of these moments.

The media titan was in a screening room,

presenting a new alternative sitcom

to a group of executives.

It was not going well.

But when you're watching something with a group of people and you're involved in it and they're seeing it for the first time,

you laugh a lot.

I mean, partly out of pride and partly because you're almost like daring everybody else not to laugh.

Apart from Barry and the creative of the show, nobody was laughing.

The only two people laughing in a room of like 10 people.

The tension in the room was palpable.

Barry had already ordered 13 episodes and everybody agreed it was a mistake.

Well, is there any way to get out of this? Is there any way, this is a disaster, we can't even

...