Eden Gaha Tapped As President Of ‘Holey Moley’ Producer Eureka Productions

EXCLUSIVE: Eureka Productions, the company behind series including ABC’s Holey Moley and CBS’ upcoming The Real Love Boat, has bolstered its executive ranks with the hire of former Endemol Shine unscripted chief Eden Gaha.

Gaha has been hired as President of the Fremantle-backed company. He starts June 1 and will report to Eureka’s Co-CEOs Chris Culvenor and Paul Franklin, based out of LA.

It comes after Gaha served as showrunner on Eureka’s Frogger series for Peacock.

Gaha has been both a showrunner, exec producer and executive, having previously been President of Unscripted Television at Endemol Shine North America.

He exec produced series including Fox’s MasterChef, MasterChef Jr. and The Biggest Loser and before that spent five seasons as showrunner and executive producer for Mark Burnett’s NBC series Celebrity Apprentice, fronted by a certain recent President. He also co-exec produced series including The Contender, Pirate Master and Rock Star and worked as a supervising producer on CBS’ Survivor.

Gaha also founded his own company – Mother Media Group – that made All or Nothing: New Zealand All Blacks for Amazon.

The move comes as the company has been growing its footprint both in the U.S. and Australia.

The company is hubbing The Real Love Boat, which has been ordered by CBS for its fall schedule as well as Paramount sibling, Network Ten from Australia. It is also making a fourth season of ABC’s Holey Moley.

Eureka has also found success translating well-known film and TV IP, as well as videogames in the case of Frogger, into unscripted formats. It made Finding Magic Mike for HBO Max and The Real Dirty Dancing for Fox.

Other orders including Twenty Somethings: Austin and Dating Around for Netflix as well as Full Bloom for HBO Max.

The company managed to grow during Covid as a result of being able to film series in Australia, including the first season of Name That Tune for Fox, and has a slate of shows down under including Byron Baes and local versions of Making It and The Amazing Race.

Last year, Culvenor told Deadline, “It was so circumstantially great that we had an Australian arm – we look like geniuses but it was completely happenstance that we had a huge production entity in a place where Covid was practically non-existent.”

“The practicalities of being able to shoot with limited risk of shutdown and limited risk of Covid and protocols mean you can have audiences and people hugging and cheering. Never when I started Eureka would I ever have imagined shooting a Fox gameshow at Sydney Convention Center, but nothing was normal last year,” he added.

“Chris and Paul have a built an unscripted powerhouse that has become one of the fastest growing international production companies in the marketplace,” said Eden Gaha. “Alongside their ever-expanding slate of top-rated shows, Eureka has continued to attract the very best creative and production talent, and I am proud to join such an outstanding team.”

“Bringing Eden’s exceptional experience and creative leadership into the Eureka family helps position us for a new phase of growth,” added Culvenor and Franklin. “He shares our passion for what we do and our ambition to accelerate Eureka’s international expansion while continuing to deliver world-class unscripted shows for our partners.”