Watch My Show: The 100's Jason Rothenberg Answers Our Showrunner Survey

The CW's The 100returns this week for Season 2 with more post-apocalyptic tales and a new focus, as the teens exiled to an irradiated Earth are joined by their parents. The show ended its freshman season with plenty of cliffhangers and all sorts of villains — as well as the mysterious place known as Mount Weather. Executive producer Jason Rothenberg filled out TV Guide Magazine's Watch My Show survey to explain why there are hundreds of reasons to catch up with The 100.

TV Guide Magazine: I've got room in my life to watch just one more show. Why should it be yours?
Jason Rothenberg: Because it's a great f---ing story, with good characters in a unique world.

TV Guide Magazine: Who should be watching?
Rothenberg: I think our show would appeal to the audience that watches The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. That's the kind of show that it is. Those who already watch it know what I'm saying is true. It's genuinely playing with that level of drama, stakes, scope and intensity.

TV Guide Magazine: What happens if we don't watch your show?
Rothenberg: Then you'll be condemned to a life of misery and despair. We'll float you.

TV Guide Magazine: What's the best thing anyone has said or written about your show?
Rothenberg: My favorite thing that I hear all the time is, "I thought that show was going to suck, and now I can't stop watching it." I'm always happy when people are fans from the beginning, but I really like winning the haters over.

TV Guide Magazine: What's the worst thing?
Rothenberg: People really took off on us about the love triangle in the beginning. I think we probably deservedly got some s--- for doing some expected stuff at the start. The network has allowed us to really push the envelope since then — they've been encouraging us to.

TV Guide Magazine: Who was right?
Rothenberg: They were both right. 

TV Guide Magazine: What's an alternate title for The 100?
Rothenberg: By the end of Season One? The 50.

TV Guide Magazine: Give us an equation for your show.
Rothenberg: Lost plus logic, times Battlestar Galactica minus accents, divided by The Walking Dead minus "The Walking," plus the square root of Game of Thrones.

TV Guide Magazine: Come up with a premise for the spin-off.
Rothenberg: The Grounders. The different clans of our Grounders are fascinating to all of us, and to our characters. There could be some cool stories there.

TV Guide Magazine: What credit of yours would you like to forget?
Rothenberg: None. I don't have enough credits to wish any of them were forgotten.

TV Guide Magazine: Tell me one thing about your cast.
Rothenberg: They all do great American accents, but when the director yells "cut," it sounds like the United Nations on set.

TV Guide Magazine: What other series would you most like to be an executive producer on?
Rothenberg: The Littlest Pet Shop. My daughter would think I was a god.

TV Guide Magazine: Let's scare the network. Tell us an idea that didn't make it on to the screen.
Rothenberg: Clarke's dad somehow surviving his floating. We loved Chris Browning's performance so much that we didn't want to see him go. You should've heard the bizarre ways we were trying to save him from our own backstory.

TV Guide Magazine: Finish this sentence: "If you like _______, you'll love our show."
Rothenberg: Grounded sci-fi.

TV Guide Magazine: Pick another show and start a fake feud.
Rothenberg: Forever. Because Matt Miller left The Beatles to join The Knack. [Forever executive producer Miller was a consulting producer on The 100 last season.]

TV Guide Magazine: What other show would you like to do a cross-over episode with and how would that go?
Rothenberg: Orphan Black. I can't even imagine how insane the show would be with eight Clarkes... but I'd like to try.

TV Guide Magazine: How will your show change the face of TV as we know it?
Rothenberg: I don't know about "changing the face of TV," but one thing we're really proud of is how many amazing, badass characters we have — many of whom are women.  And we're a little disturbed to keep hearing about how rare that is. Our women are strong, integral to the story and well-rounded. We have warriors, leaders, mechanics and doctors, just to name a few. That's something I think is important about The 100. Also, we spear people in the chest and it's cool.

The 100's Season 2 premiere airs Wednesday, Oct. 22, at 9/8c on The CW.

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