CBS hires from VH1

CBS Television Studios has appointed a VH1 exec to work across the company’s alternative and unscripted programming.

Susan Levison

Susan Levison becomes senior VP of alternative programming and will create and develop alternative and unscripted content for broadcast and cable networks, streaming services and digital platforms.

Levison will work with and report to Ghen Maynard, senior exec VP of alternative programming.

She joins from VH1, where she had been executive producing scripted series Daytime Divas and, prior to that, served as executive VP for original programming and production.

Her remit included overseeing all original programming and development for both the east and west coasts of the US, as well as talent development.

Before that, Levison was the first creative hire at FishBowl Worldwide Media, having started her career at Fox working on shows such as Paradise Hotel and The Simple Life. Her credits include Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood and Dating Naked.

Maynard, who returned to CBS last year to launch the alternative department, said Levison would bring “an entrepreneurial spirit that I’ve long admired, as well as outstanding creative chops as a producer, seller and buyer.”

Maynard oversees the development of an array of unscripted shows for all outlets, with existing programmes including TBS’s Drop the Mic and Apple’s Carpool Karaoke spin-offs from The Late Late Show with James Corden.

He oversaw unscripted at CBS from 2000 until 2004 and was behind shows such as Survivor, The Amazing Race and America’s Next Top Model. Maynard left to join NBC as exec VP of primetime development, working on shows including Heroes.

He then returned to CBS to oversee alternative programming, before leaving again in 2008 to become an indie producer, working on pilots for AMC and The CW among others.