Half Yard, Doyle go to Public School

Half Yard Productions, the Red Arrow Studios-owned US prodco behind Say Yes to the Dress, has paired with former Discovery exec and host of The Dirt, Christo Doyle, on a new venture.

Christo Doyle

Public School Productions, based in Washington DC, will be dedicated to developing and producing character-driven factual and reality series.

Doyle spent 17 years at Discovery, latterly as VP of production and development, where he commissioned and grew the Gold Rush franchise and hosted its spin-off talk show The Dirt.

Other credits there include American Chopper, Monster Garage, Overhaulin’, American Hot Rod, Biker Build-Off, Miami Ink, Dirty Jobs, Jungle Gold, Pacific Warrior, Flying Wild Alaska, Alaskan Bush People and Dual Survival.

The partnership will see Half Yard put in place production infrastructure for Public School Productions and includes plans to co-develop projects.

Dirk Hoogstra

Dirk Hoogstra, CEO of Half Yard Productions and also a former Discovery commissioner, said: “At Half Yard Productions we are always looking for new stories to tell and Christo has an incredible track record of bringing new stories and characters to our screens. We can’t wait to help build Public School Productions into a new storytelling powerhouse.”

Doyle, founder, added: “It’s exciting to be finally going out on my own and to use years of storytelling experience at Discovery to build Public School Productions into a leader in cutting-edge content. The goal is to make great TV with great people.”