David Nevins to succeed Showtime’s Bob Greenblatt as entertainment president
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David Nevins, who until last week ran Imagine TV for eight years, will succeed Bob Greenblatt as Showtime’s entertainment president, the pay cable channel announced Monday. Nevins will step into the position later this summer.
The move had been expected. Several months ago, Greenblatt -- who redefined Showtime with such breakout programs as ‘Weeds,’ ‘Dexter,’ ‘Nurse Jackie’ and ‘The Tudors’ -- told his bosses that he would not renew his contract when it expired in mid-July. Showtime, a unit of CBS Corp., quietly launched a search for a successor.
During Nevins’ time as president of Imagine Television, he helped develop such shows as ‘Friday Night Lights’ and ‘Parenthood,’ both for NBC, and ‘Lie to Me’ for Fox.
‘David’s career has been punctuated by genre-defining programming at every turn and has the perfect creative sensibility for Showtime Networks’ next exciting chapter,’ Matt Blank, chief executive of Showtime Networks, said in a statement.
This won’t be the first time that Nevins will follow Greenblatt in a management role. Nevins became a programming executive at Fox Broadcasting in the late 1990s a few years after the departure of Greenblatt, who had shepherded ‘Melrose Place,’ ‘Beverly Hills 90210’ and ‘Ally McBeal.’ While at Fox, Nevins helped mold ‘24’ and ‘Boston Public.’
‘Showtime has shown a remarkably consistent ability to develop unique, signature shows with that rare combination of creative integrity and mass appeal — and frankly they do the kind of shows I like to watch,” Nevins said. ‘I’m excited to build on its legacy.’
-- Meg James
