Viacom Names Rebecca Glashow and Shelley Zimmerman Co-Heads Of Awesomeness

Viacom Digital Studios has named Rebecca Glashow and Shelley Zimmerman co-heads of Awesomeness, where they’ll be charged with leading the brand’s next stage of growth.

Based in New York, Glashow most recently served as chief strategy and distribution officer at Awesomeness following executive roles overseeing content distribution and strategy at Discovery and Comcast.  Zimmerman was head of Awesomeness’ television studio in Los Angeles and previously led scripted programming development and production at Warner Horizon and Tollin/Robbins Productions.

“Rebecca and Shelley continue to be a driving force at the heart of Awesomeness,” Viacom Digital Studios President Kelly Day said in a statement. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Rebecca and Shelley for years. Their contributions have been instrumental in the company’s success and they have a distinct ability to grow and leverage the brand with the strength of their combined creative and operational expertise and leadership.”

Viacom acquired AwesomenessTV back in July, saying it fills a programming void for corporate parent Viacom, fitting in between Nickelodeon’s youthful demographic and the more mature MTV generation. A month later, it went through a major round of layoffs that resulted in about half of the staff leaving.

With Glashow and Zimmerman at the helm, Awesomeness will focus on developing premium content for the youth market with a focus on scripted series for teen girls and young adults. It cited as an example the success of the Netflix film To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, which was produced by Awesomeness and premiered  in August.

Awesomeness’ studio arm is also gearing up to launch its third series with Hulu next month, the teen thriller Light as Feather starring Liana Liberato, Peyton List, and Ajiona Alexus. In addition, the comedy Foursome will launch its fourth season on YouTube Premium, followed by the series premiere of Overthinking with Kat and June later this year.

Awesomeness will advance the efforts of Viacom Digital Studios to create premium digital programming at scale for a new generation of young audiences and build meaningful distribution and business models outside of linear television as Viacom looks toward the future..