[2] Best known for the reality competition shows American Ninja Warrior[3] and Hell's Kitchen,[4] he was inducted into the Realscreen Hall of Fame in 2021,[5][6] and was named Producer of the Year 2020 [7] by Broadcasting & Cable.
For his work on the 1988 games, Smith and his colleagues won Gemini Awards for excellence in sports and spot news coverage (of the Ben Johnson doping scandal).
[20] In 1987 he became the lead producer for the CFL on CBC, where he introduced new graphics, theme song and animation and a halftime magazine show.
[19] In his role, he acquired a number of broadcasting rights for the network, including the 1992 Winter Olympics, CART racing, and the World Figure Skating Championships.
[21] In 1996, Smith joined the fledgling Fox Sports Net as executive vice-president of programming, production and news.
[30] He also served as executive producer on all network events including major league baseball, college football and all original programming including Fox Sports News, Hardcore Football, NFL Total Access, The Last Word with Jim Rome, and Goin' Deep, hosted by Joe Buck and Chris Meyers.
[32] A. Smith & Co. has created series in the reality, documentary, and non-fiction spaces for over two decades,[7] including: Hell's Kitchen (FOX); American Ninja Warrior (NBC); Mental Samurai (FOX); The Titan Games (NBC); Voices of Fire (Netflix); Death by Magic (Netflix); Welcome to Plathville (TLC); Trading Spaces (TLC); Pros vs. Joes (Spike); Kitchen Nightmares (FOX); American Gangster (BET); American Gangster: Trap Queens (BET+); Unsung (TV One); Paradise Hotel (FOX); The Swan (FOX); Skating with Celebrities (FOX); I Survived a Japanese Game Show (ABC); Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura (truTV); Full Throttle Saloon (truTV), The World According to Paris (Oxygen), Human vs Hamster (Max), American Ninja Warrior Junior (Universal Kids), Floor Is Lava (Netflix) and the NFL’s Pro Bowl Games (ABC/ESPN).
[33] In the book, called an “immediate must-read” by Forbes,[34] Smith draws on the most exciting moments of his pioneering career as a producer to show how far you can go when you reach for your dreams.