The CultureMap Interview

Tilman on TV: Houston Rockets owner on new season of his reality show

Houston mogul Tilman Fertitta mentors, and hires, hopefuls on his show, Billion Dollar Buyer.

Courtesy photo

You’d be hard-pressed to find a Houstonian who’s had a more high-profile year than Tilman Fertitta. The Landry’s, Inc. CEO has long been a household name as the owner of 600 properties — including high-end restaurants such as Mastro’s and Morton’s The Steakhouse; mainstream destinations such as Rainforest Café, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Saltgrass Steak House; and five Golden Nugget Casinos.

But it’s his recent acquisition of the Houston Rockets, paired with his alpha presence as the star of the reality show Billion Dollar Buyer, that has rocketed Fertitta into the national spotlight. In its third season, which premieres tonight at 9 pm on CNBC, Billion Dollar Buyer pairs Fertitta with two small businesses in each episode; he samples their goods, gets to know the owners, and assesses their compatibility with Landry’s, Inc. The Houston native points out flaws in products and operations, shares his expertise, and pushes for improvements. In the end, he decides whether to place a transformative purchase order with one of the companies, both, or neither.

This season, five Houston business — BellaBreeze, Eat Drink Host, K&N Custom Granite, Mar-tea-na Tea Company, and Texas Mattress Makers — are among the 12 jockeying for Fertitta’s mentorship — and money. We caught up with Fertitta to talk reality TV, and tonight’s premiere:

CultureMap: You’re an NBA owner, you rub elbows with celebrities in sports, business and entertainment, and your businesses are nationwide. Could you be the next great brand ambassador for Houston to the rest of the country?

Tilman Fertitta: You know, I’ve never thought of that. I think it’s just the nature of Houston. When you take out your athletes — take out J.J. Watt, James Harden, Deshaun Watson — if you went around the country, and asked people to name someone from Houston who isn’t an athlete, it would probably be hard for them. That’s just the way it is right now.

CM: Which puts you in a unique position.

TF: Yes. Look, there are a lot of great business people in Houston, but for me, I think it’s because I have businesses that are across the country, and they’re high-visibility businesses. And now I own the Rockets, and have a TV show. I certainly didn’t position myself this way; it just kind of happened.

CM: Have you tried to create a Houston “feel” on the show?

TF: I think people see the Houston charm and hospitality. I’d like to think wherever I go, I’m an ambassador for Houston.

CM: Your trajectory is very similar to another reality star: Mark Cuban. You were both billionaires in your own right, you bought NBA teams based in Texas, and now are both on reality television.

TF: Wow, you know, that hasn’t occurred to me. No one’s ever told me that. I have a lot of respect for Mark, and it sure doesn't hurt my feelings to be compared to him.

CM: There are five Houston businesses on the show this season. Do you find yourself subconsciously favoring them?

TF: Maybe so. You probably look at a local company a little harder — you want to do deals with the locals. I know mentally I’m probably in that state. I will say: all the companies I meet with are good people, and they’ve been cast because they’re people who want to learn. It’s been a great pleasure for me to get out and meet new people and see these products.

CM: There must be a kinship between host and hopefuls, being that you were once in their shoes?

TF: One hundred percent. I like relating things that happened in my past with them. We’re not perfect — we make mistakes every year. I’ve just been fortunate to make more good decisions than bad.The show is just as much about mentoring as it is about me buying their product. So even if I don’t buy their product, I’m trying to help them as a company.

CM: Do you wish there had been a Tilman for you?

TF: I never had a mentor, but I had people I watched and wanted to emulate their success. I was always intrigued by Vincent Kickerillo. And I’ve been going to Vegas since I was in my teens, so I’ve always been intrigued by people like Steve Wynn. I can remember going to The Golden Nugget downtown and realizing that Steve Wynn’s vision was so far ahead of everyone else’s.

It’s interesting because later in life, I’ve become very good friends with Vincent Kickerillo and Steve Wynn. So I’ve been very fortunate that people I’ve looked up to, I’ve ended up becoming good friends with.

CM: Do you see yourself staying in TV, as a star, and maybe as an executive producer?

TF: Shooting the show takes a lot of time, but I can see it. I can see myself staying in the business.

They had been talking to me about doing a show forever. But I told them that I’m viewed on Wall Street as a serious businessman. So I’m not gonna do a show that has a lot of drama; it has to be more of a teaching show. And it’s on CNBC, which is a business channel. That’s important.

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Billion Dollar Buyer airs at 9 pm Wednesdays on CNBC.

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Movie Review

Denzel Washington brings new spectacle to the Colosseum in Gladiator II

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Paul Mescal in Gladiator II.

There are some films for which making a sequel is natural, and others where a follow-up is wholly unnecessary. Gladiator, which made both tons of money and was named Best Picture at the Oscars, told an impactful stand-alone story that ended with the protagonist dead and no real loose ends. And yet because there’s always more money to be made, here we are 24 years later with Gladiator II.

The lead character this time around is Lucius (Paul Mescal), a general in a North African army who becomes a prisoner of war when the Roman army led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) bests him and his troops in battle. Taken back to Rome, he is put in the pool of captured men forced to fight at the Colosseum for the amusement of twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracella (Fred Hechinger).

Lucius is controlled by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), an ambitious schemer who bets liberally on his prized fighter and always has an eye to move up in the world. Meanwhile, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the sister of Emperor Commodus from the first film, is now married to Marcus Acacius and has a unique connection with Lucius that is fairly obvious from the get-go.

Directed once again by Ridley Scott and written by David Scarpa, the film commits a number of sins throughout its 150-minute running time, the most blatant of which is that, aside from a few embellishments, it essentially tells the same story as the first film. Lucius, like Maximus, is a deposed military leader who’s out for revenge on the person who killed his family. Instead of one obnoxious emperor, there are now two. And the only way for Lucius to earn his freedom is to fight his way out.

Stories told in the same world can echo each other and, if done well, overcome those similarities. But Gladiator II is shockingly boring for a purported sword-and-sandals epic. Scott and his team try to introduce new elements to the fights, like a gladiator riding a rhinoceros or a ship battle inside the Colosseum (with sharks!), but most of the sequences are inert with no propulsion to them.

The action fails because none of the relationships in the film amount to much. There are stand-out characters like Macrinus and the twin emperors, but instead of creating antipathy or strong feelings of triumph or defeat, the story just kind of happens without any sense of excitement or importance. Much of that issue lies at the feet of Lucius, who simply doesn’t inspire in the same way that Russell Crowe’s Maximus did.

Mescal is a fine actor who’s done good work in more intimate roles, but he’s not up to the task of being an action star, at least not in this film. Any bombast he shows with the character feels forced, and the story doesn’t give him enough opportunities to counteract that lack. Washington, however, fills up the screen with his charisma, and it’s during his scenes that the film comes closest to being rousing. Quinn and Hechinger are a lot of fun as the twin emperors, but in the end they feel like retreads of Joaquin Phoenix from the original.

Any sequel should have a purpose that sets it apart from what came before, but Scott, Scarpa, and the rest of their team fail in that respect in Gladiator II. It’s a mostly lifeless film that delivers scenes that would be exciting if they had any kind of good story to back them up.

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Gladiator II opens in theaters on November 22.

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