ITVS America, Assembly link up

ITV Studios America has signed an exclusive producer overall deal (POD) with Assembly Entertainment, the US prodco led by former Cineflix Studios president Christina Wayne.

Philippe Maigret

It marks the first exclusive POD deal since Philippe Maigret was named president of ITV Studios America, ITV’s US scripted TV operation, in the summer.

Wayne and her team will relocate to ITV Studios America’s offices in New York and LA.

The team includes Assembly Entertainment director of development Lauren Paget, who joined the company in November 2013. Prior to joining Assembly, Paget worked in scripted development and production at Shine America, formerly known as Reveille.

As CEO of Assembly, Wayne develops and produces scripted dramas worldwide, including I’m Dying Up Here for Showtime (pilot currently in production) and nine cable dramas in active development at Cinemax, Amazon, WGN, USA, A+E and BBC America.

“Christina and her team were key to my success at Endemol when I signed them as my first POD deal and their keen sense of identifying great material and attracting stellar talent consistently impresses me. I look forward to continuing our journey of making great television together,” said Maigret.

Christina Wayne

Prior to creating Assembly, Wayne was president of Cineflix Studios, Cineflix’s scripted TV division, where she oversaw the company’s scripted programming and was an exec producer on BBC America’s Copper.

Wayne was also senior VP for scripted series and miniseries at cablenet AMC.

Last week Leftfield Entertainment CEO and founder Brent Montgomery was confirmed as CEO of the ITV Studios Group, which is being rebranded as ITV America.

Under Montgomery’s leadership, all of ITV’s US businesses will become part of ITV America, including ITV Studios America, which will be rebranded as ITV Entertainment.