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In the market for the next big thing

By CHASE SQUIRES
Published July 16, 2005

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Mopping floors made Joy Mangano rich. Now it's going to make her a star.

Well, a bigger star.

Mangano, a single mom and part-time Tampa resident who built an empire around the Miracle Mop on the Pinellas County-based Home Shopping Network, joins a renowned industrial designer and the guy who invented Pong and Atari this fall to judge a competition show on the USA network.

Producers presented the show, called Made in the USA, Friday at the Television Critics Association summer gathering. Imagine American Idol, but instead of singing, aspiring inventors compete over six weeks of shows for the grand prize: a whole lot of HSN air time to sell the winning product.

"That's more valuable than a cash award," Mangano told critics.

She should know. Mangano said she could hardly keep up with her bills in the early 1990s when she designed the Miracle Mop and set out to market it. Her persistence paid off when HSN gave her 20 minutes of air time to hawk the self-wringing mop. She sold 20,000 mops on the spot. From there, she has become an HSN regular - and, according to HSN officials, a marketing machine - selling Huggable Hangers, Flexassages, Jewel Kits and My Little Steamers through her company, Ingenious Designs.

When she gets in front of the camera, she sells a lot: 60-million hangers, 10-million mops, 300,000 jewel kits, at a million-dollar-an-hour clip to video shoppers.

After years of commuting from her home on New York's Long Island to HSN world headquarters ("I call the area my second home; I should call it my first home"), Mangano said she's planning to buy a place in Tampa in the coming year. But first, she ventures into entertainment programming in Made in the USA. On the show, which culminates with a live finale when viewers will pick the winner, Mangano joins industrial designer Karim Rashid and Nolan Bushnell, who invented Atari and created the Chuck E. Cheese's pizza chain. They'll be asked to judge creations that inventors hope will make it to the market, listening to pitches for everything from a weird back scratcher, to women's shoes with removable high heels that make them easier to pack, to a combination baby car seat/stroller.

"I wish I had a platform like this. It would have made my journey a lot shorter," Mangano said. "It may sound corny, but America is the land of opportunity."

So, apparently, is HSN.

"You don't have to have the talent to sing or dance," Mangano said. "Everybody has an idea."

The clip shown to critics looked entertaining, and executive producer Ken Mok (America's Next Top Model, Making the Band) said what he liked was that it never turned mean. Viewers will learn about the creative process and may even be inspired to make their own idea real, he said.

As for HSN venturing from its own cable channel to an entertainment channel, company president Marty Nealon said she's eager to expand the brand and bring HSN viewers to USA.

Made in the USA debuts at 10 p.m. Sept. 14 on USA. Mangano's next HSN marathon, a special on Huggable Hangers, starts at midnight July 30.

[Last modified July 16, 2005, 00:35:34]