Mike Darnell is the undisputed evil genius of reality TV, a fiendish Rumplestiltskin installed high atop a Fox tower, where he oversees day-to-day operations of that network's Dept. of Non-Scripted, Deluge-Summoning Entertainment. Ask anyone who has witnessed Darnell in action, and they'll describe how his mind never stops churning, processing the virtually limitless combinations of millionaires/ abandoned daughters/ homely women he can sequester on islands/ McMansions/ lie-detector-equipped soundstages, confident America will tune in to find out if they forget the lyrics/survive that reindeer attack/are dumber than a 5th grader. THR sat down with Darnell to find out what makes Satan's Primetime Minion tick:

Q: You're known for creating catchy titles. What do you look for?

Mike Darnell: Something simple that grabs you. In the best cases, the title itself is enough to drive you to view the show with no footage and no promo...Length doesn't matter — I used to get in arguments about that all the time. All that matters is that it says what it is. [...]

Q: You've had some controversial content over the years. Is there anything that you regret airing?

Darnell: "Regret" is a big word. I suppose I regret putting on "Who's Your Daddy?" (in which an adult adoptee tried to pick her biological father from a group of men). Because like "Kid Nation," it was enormously controversial but with the controversy outside of the program — so it doesn't translate into ratings. The show was pretty good, but what was driving people was this outside controversy. [...]

Q: What's the worst reality show idea you've ever heard?

Darnell: I was pitched "'Big Brother' with puppets" — so that half the "Big Brother" people are human and they're competing against puppets. Week after week, the audience either votes a human out or a puppet.

We'll assume that Darnell misinterpreted the last question to mean "what was the least technically feasible idea you've ever heard," because as reality shows go, Big Muppet is in our estimation the single greatest idea for a series, like, ever—if only for the sequence in which a robot camera zooms in to focus on Janice, sunning herself on a chaise lounge as she confides in her Jesus-freak ally that she can "always tell a New York Jew from their noses. They're totally not groovy!"

[Photo: WireImage]

• Q&A: Hits keep coming for reality guru Darnell [THR/Reuters]