It’s been a busy week at Amazon as the restructure involving MGM takes hold.
Deadline revealed earlier today that Lindsay Sloane and Rola Bauer were handed key roles within MGM’s new scripted TV structure.
The company is also known for producing a swathe of unscripted series including The Voice, Survivor and Shark Tank as well as reality shows such as The Real Housewives of Orange County and Beverly Hills.
Deadline understands Barry Poznick, who is President of MGM Unscripted Television and Orion Television, and was one of outgoing chief Mark Burnett’s key lieutenants, is set to stay within the organization. This comes after many MGM employees were offered a one-year contract extension.
However, there are still question marks over exactly how the unscripted division looks and its reporting structure.
In August, Amazon Studios merged its Prime Video and Freevee unscripted teams under the leadership of Chris Castallo with Castallo now reporting to Lauren Anderson, who became Head of AVOD Programming and Studios Unscripted across U.S. Prime Video and Amazon Freevee.
It’s unclear who exactly Poznick and his team will report to, but the move obviously brings a lot more volume to Amazon Studios’ unscripted slate, much of which is produced for linear networks.
Poznick, who started working with Burnett in 2006 on Fox’s Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, has overseen MGM’s slate of unscripted programming since 2016 and in 2019 was promoted to oversee sports entertainment, premium documentaries and true crime as well as Orion TV, which has now been folded into MGM US Scripted TV.
Burnett said yesterday that he will continue to oversee MGM’s three unscripted tentpoles – The Voice, Survivor and Shark Tank.
The company also owns stakes in Big Fish Entertainment, the company that produces Reelz’ hit On Patrol: Live, and Evolution Media, which has made The Real Housewives series. Alex Baskin, who ran the latter, stepped down over the summer so who oversees the production of those shows going forward is also up in the air.
Plenty more to come, it seems.
