Algorithms are not computer programs.
From Me and My Algorithm, with added emphasis:
Algorithms, as you probably know, are the computer programs that infer from your profile (in the case of Facebook) and from the content of your e-mails (in the case of Gmail) your interests and preferences, enabling ads to be displayed to the customers most likely to be interested in specific products
Algorithms, as this television writer evidently does not know, are not computer programs, just as ideas are not books and blueprints are not buildings. Algorithms are the step-by-step logical directions for performing some process or solving some problem: accordingly, they have a lot to contribute to computer programs.
Developers frequently implement algorithms when writing software. They take each of the steps proscribed by an algorithm and translate it into specific lines of code that apply the algorithm's logic to the task at hand, frequently adapting it or extending it to include additional context-specific steps. This process is very much akin to a writer working an idea into a text: on the page, the idea has been communicated in some particular form, but it nevertheless lives on untouched outside of the specific implementation.