Sharon Levy Joins Endemol Shine North America As President Of Unscripted & Scripted Television
Former Spike TV head of programming Sharon Levy has been tapped as President of Unscripted and Scripted Television for Endemol Shine North America. She will report to Cris Abrego, Chairman of Endemol Shine Americas and CEO of Endemol Shine North America.
Levy was most recently EVP Original Series at Spike TV. She left the network in February amid a Viacom corporate restructuring after spending 12 years building Spike’s brand with unscripted and scripted series as well as documentaries.
“Sharon is one of our industry’s most well-respected executives and brings with her a tremendous amount of experience developing and producing hits across a wide array of genres,” Abrego said. “We’re thrilled to have her joining our team here at Endemol Shine and leading our programming efforts going forward
At Endemol Shine North America, Levy fills a void left by the April departure of Eden Gaha, who served as President of Unscripted. The company’s unscripted division is overseen by Rob Smith, with Michael Weinberg running unscripted development, while Sharon Hall heads scripted unit Endemol Shine Studios. Smith, Weinberg and Hall now will report to Levy.
Domestically, Endemol Shine North America, a division of Endemol Shine Group, is known for its unscripted fare. It is behind such series as Big Brother (CBS), MasterChef and MasterChef Junior (Fox), The Real Housewives of Atlanta (Bravo), Swamp People (History), Ink Master (Spike), Fear Factor (MTV) and upcoming series Page Six TV (syndicated), Best.Cover.Ever (YouTube) and TLC’s Trading Spaces. The company’s scripted series credits include AMC’s Hell on Wheels and Audience Network’s Kingdom.
During her seven years as EVP Original Series at Spike TV, Levy oversaw the acquisition, creation and production of all entertainment, shepherding such unscripted series as Ink Master, Bar Rescue, Auction Hunters and Deadliest Warrior. Additionally, Levy led Spike’s foray into scripted fare with the miniseries Tut starring Ben Kingsley; sci-fi drama The Mist, based on a novella by Stephen King; and upcoming limited series Waco from The Weinstein Company. Levy also started a push into documentaries at Spike with such projects as Time: The Kalief Browder Story from Jay-Z and Harvey Weinstein and It Was Him: The Many Murders of Ed Edwards.
Levy originally joined Spike — which will soon be rebranded as Paramount Network — in 2005 as SVP Original Series and developed numerous high-profile shows including Deadliest Warrior, Pros vs. Joes, 1000 Ways to Die and 4th and Long. Prior to Spike, Levy served as SVP and Executive Producer at Stone Stanley Entertainment.