Highly respected Warner Bros. Television (WBTV) executives Susan Rovner and Brett Paul have been named Co-Presidents of Warner Horizon Scripted Television, adding oversight of original scripted cable programming to their ongoing creative and business responsibilities at industry leader WBTV. The announcement was made today by Warner Bros. Television Group President and Chief Content Officer Peter Roth, to whom both Rovner and Paul will continue to report.
Rovner, who will continue in her role as Executive
Vice President of Development for WBTV, will now also be directly responsible for spearheading the development and programming of the Studio's scripted television series for the cable marketplace. Paul will maintain his role as Executive
Vice President of WBTV, where he serves as that division's top business/operations/production executive, while now assuming formal oversight for all business operations, including production, business and legal affairs, operations, finance and administration for the prolific cable production unit.
Peter Roth said: "Susan is one of the brightest and most accomplished development executives in the entertainment industry, possessing outstanding creative judgment and the innate ability to elicit an artist's best work through collaboration. Brett's skills as a top negotiator and strategic business advisor have proven invaluable to the success of Warner Bros. Television for nearly 20 years. Together, they form a true creative and business dream team to co-run Warner
Horizon Scripted Television and lead the division into the future."
Roth continued: "As we looked at our business, with more and more of our creative talent working in both broadcast and cable, it made perfect sense to align all of our
Primetime scripted development and operational activities under the supervision of these two talented executives. In nearly eight years, Warner
Horizon Scripted Television has been highly successful and a leader in the cable marketplace, and we look forward to continued and sustained growth in this area with Susan and Brett at the helm."
Warner
Horizon Scripted Television is one of the industry's top producers of original cable series. Its one-hour dramas are
Pretty Little Liars (ABC Family's #1 series and the #1 scripted drama in the history of ad-supported cable television among Females 9-14 & 12-17);
Longmire (the most-watched original scripted series in the history of the A&E Network); Rizzoli & Isles (the #2 scripted series in the history of ad-supported cable TV among Total Viewers, for TNT); Dallas (currently in its third season on TNT); and the forthcoming The Lottery for Lifetime. Its half-hour comedies are Sullivan & Son (returning for a third season on
TBS in 2014) and
Ground Floor (recently renewed for a second season by TBS).
In co-running Warner
Horizon Scripted Television in these newly created positions, Rovner and Paul succeed Craig Erwich, who successfully served as the division's Executive
Vice President since November 2007.
Rovner has been Executive
Vice President, Development, WBTV, since March 2010. In this role, she has been charged with the creation of new
Primetime programming for the broadcast network marketplace and has overseen the division's drama and comedy development teams. For the 2013-14 TV season, WBTV scored an impressive 10 new series orders. Recent programs developed by WBTV during Rovner's tenure include
Person of Interest for CBS, The Following for FOX,
Arrow for The CW,
Suburgatory for
ABC and Believe for NBC, among many others.
Prior to being promoted to her current post, Rovner had previously served as WBTV's Senior
Vice President, Drama Development, working closely with key producers such as J.J. Abrams, John Wells, Jerry Bruckheimer, Bruno Heller, Kevin Williamson and more. Series developed by Rovner during this time include The Mentalist, The Closer, The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, Fringe, One Tree Hill, Nip/Tuck and more. In her prior roles as Director and then
Vice President, Drama Development, she contributed to the development of the long-running Cold Case, as well as pop culture phenom The O.C. and the critically acclaimed Everwood. Before joining the Studio, she was Executive Director, Movies for Television, ABC.
Paul has been Executive
Vice President of WBTV since July 2008. As the second highest-ranking business executive of that division, Paul has worked closely with Roth and has been directly involved with all aspects of the division's strategy and operations. He has direct oversight of the division's physical production, financial, business and legal affairs, and administrative departments. In this role, he has structured and/or overseen some of the studio's highest-profile licensing agreements, covering current series such as The Big Bang Theory, Person of Interest, The Mentalist, Two and a Half Men, Arrow, The Vampire Diaries, Shameless and HBO's upcoming The Leftovers, as well as
The Voice and
The Bachelor franchise. Paul has also been intimately involved in the structuring of high-profile talent agreements, including overall deals with producers Chuck Lorre, J.J. Abrams, Greg Berlanti, Jerry Bruckheimer, Michael Patrick King, Damon Lindelof, The Shephard/Robin Company and John Wells, as well as talent agreements for the cast of The Big Bang Theory, Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer on Two and a Half Men, Simon Baker on The Mentalist, Melissa McCarthy on Mike & Molly and many more. He has also served Roth in an advisory capacity for other divisions covering similar issues, including Warner
Horizon Television.
Since joining WBTV in 1995 as
Vice President, Business Affairs, Paul has served in multiple capacities. Prior to being named to Executive
Vice President, he served as Executive
Vice President of Business Affairs, Operations and Finance, since January 2006. Before joining WBTV, Paul was a member of the senior management team at All American Communications, a publicly traded entertainment holding company with operations including both television production and syndication. And before that, he worked as a corporate legal associate at both Hill Wynne Troop & Meisinger in Southern California and at Cahill, Gordon & Reindel in New York.
