Spike TV finds Gold

US cablenet Spike TV is continuing its push into the scripted space with the hire of an executive from US production firm Parkes & Macdonald.

Ted Gold was previously president of TV and an exec producer for the US prodco, which has a first-look deal with Universal Television, where he developed projects for HBO, Showtime, ABC, NBC, USA Network and Amazon.

In his newly-created role of senior VP of scripted original series at Spike, Gold will lead a revamped scripted development team and oversee development and production of all of Spike’s scripted programming.

He will report to Sharon Levy, exec VP of original series.

Justin Lacob, VP of original series, will now report to Gold as part of the newly-formed development team. Lacob joined Spike in June 2011 and has overseen the development and production of one of Spike’s highest rated unscripted original series, Bar Rescue.

He will continue to work on non-scripted projects, overseen by Chris Rantamaki, senior VP of original series.

Gold’s previous stints include serving as head of television for Deuce Three Productions where he spearheaded all television business and development for Academy Award-winning filmmaker Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential).

He was also senior VP of series development at US network Fox where he oversaw all dramatic programming including Bones, Prison Break and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Spike TV began developing scripted series last year after six years away from the genre.