Van Amburg, Erlicht to leave SPT

Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, the presidents of Sony Pictures Television, are to leave the studio this summer.

Zack Van Amburg (left) and Jamie Erlicht

The company veterans took on the role a year ago as part of a restructure following the departure of Steve Mosko.

Van Amburg, who joined the studio in 1997, and Erlicht, who arrived in 2002, had overseen numerous shows since being appointed presidents of US programming and production in 2005, including Rescue Me, The Shield, Breaking Bad and Shark Tank.

However, an internal memo to staff yesterday confirmed they would both depart later this year to pursue an unspecified new project. No replacement has been named.

The departures continue 12 months of upheaval at the US studio which began with Mosko’s exit after a damaging leak of company emails by hackers.

Erlicht and Van Amburg were reporting directly to chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment Michael Lynton following last year’s restructure. However, he announced he was leaving in January and former Fox Networks Group chairman Tony Vinciquerra was confirmed as his replacement in May.

Erlicht and Van Amburg leave with glowing reputations having built a slate of talent and shows that includes Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad from Vince Gilligan.