Endemol is an international television production and distribution company based in the Netherlands, with subsidiaries and joint ventures in 23 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Poland, Portugal, Russia, India, South Africa, Lebanon, Morocco, Philippines, Belgium, Turkey and Australia. It is controlled by Endemol's co-founder John de Mol.
Endemol was founded in 1994 by a merger of television production companies owned by Joop van den Ende and John de Mol, the name deriving from the combination of their surnames. One notable success has been the Big Brother reality television show, with versions in many countries after the initial Dutch version. However the most profitable programme for Endemol is Deal or No Deal which has now been sold to over 100 countries. They specialise in inexpensive programming that is appealing to television executives in the modern multi-channel world, and other Endemol programmes in this vein include Changing Rooms, Ready Steady Cook, Ground Force, International King of Sports, Space Cadets, Fear Factor and Wipeout.
Broderick Steven "Steve" Harvey (born January 17, 1957) is an American entertainer and author who hosts The Steve Harvey Morning Show, and Family Feud. He is the author of Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, which was published in March 2009, and the book Straight Talk, No Chaser: How to Find and Keep a Man.
He's been an actor, comedian, entertainer, television and radio personality and best-selling author. He starred in The Steve Harvey Show, and he was featured in The Original Kings of Comedy. He also hosts the Steve Harvey Project, on an extended cable channel.
Harvey was born in Welch, West Virginia, the son of Eloise and Jesse Harvey, a coal miner. His family moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he graduated from Glenville High School in 1974. Shortly after high school he attended Kent State University and West Virginia University and is a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He has been a boxer, an insurance salesman, and a mailman.
Steve Harvey first performed stand-up comedy on October 8, 1985 at the Hilarities Comedy Club in Cleveland, Ohio. He was a finalist in Second Annual Johnnie Walker National Comedy Search in 1989, eventually leading to a long stint as host of It's Showtime at the Apollo, succeeding Mark Curry in that role. His success as a stand-up comedian led to a starring role on the ABC show Me and the Boys in 1994. He would later star on the WB network show, The Steve Harvey Show, which ran from 1996 to 2002. While wildly popular in the African-American community (the show won multiple NAACP Image Awards), the show never achieved critical acclaim outside of the African-American community, a matter about which Harvey has often complained.