Listen: Steve Harvey Looks Beyond TV for His Next Opportunities

By Andrew Wallenstein

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – TV has been good to Steve Harvey. Just not good enough.

Though the comedian may be one of the most omnipresent stars across his many shows (“Family Feud,” “Little Big Shots,” “Showtime at the Apollo,” etc.), he is looking to take his career to the next level by doing more than just being a performer.

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“I’ve already proven myself to be the hardest working man in show business,” he said on the latest episode of “Strictly Business,” recorded last month from the stage of Variety’s annual CES summit in Las Vegas. “Now with global business opportunities, I’m trying to work a lot smarter instead of harder.”

Those new opportunities range from investments far from the entertainment world to apps, where he has turned a game from his talk show, “Harvey’s Hundreds,” into a mobile experience. With the possibility that he and NBCUniversal may go their separate ways after seven years of doing “Steve” on stations across the country, Harvey knows he has to think about business differently.

“I’ve got to generate businesses that can secure something for my family,” he said. “If I don’t get into these apps, and if I don’t expand globally, if I don’t look at the tech space, I have no way of leaving them anything.”

“” is Variety‘s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of entertainment. Listen to the podcast below for the full interview, or check out previous “ Strictly Business”  episodes featuring HBO chairman/CEO Richard Plepler, Discovery CEO David Zaslav, and TV star Tyra Banks. A new episode debuts each Tuesday and can be downloaded on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, and SoundCloud.