AMC has named former Fox broadcasting programming executive David Madden president of original programming for AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios.

Madden effectively replaces former AMC and SundanceTV president of original programming and development Joel Stillerman, who left AMC in May for Hulu. Madden was most recently president of entertainment for Fox broadcasting network.

“David Madden is a terrific, thoughtful person and a proven, tested executive. He’s known broadly not just for his leadership but also for developing and producing original programming alongside some of our industry’s most outstanding talent,” said Charlie Collier, president of AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios in a statement. “His rare and noteworthy success in this industry speaks for itself. He will have an immediate impact across our AMC and SundanceTV senior management team and, notably, our AMC Studios business as it continues to play an increasingly significant role for our networks and well beyond.”

Madden, who will start later this month, will be based in AMC’s Los Angeles office, where he will work closely with Susie Fitzgerald, executive vice president of scripted programming for AMC and SundanceTV; Kristin Jones, senior vice president of international programming development, acquisitions and co-productions for AMC and SundanceTV; and Eliot Goldberg, senior vice president of non-fiction and alternative programming for AMC and SundanceTV, and their teams.

Prior to Fox broadcasting, Madden was president of Fox Television Studios, which developed and produced programming for a variety of broadcast and cable networks in the U.S. and internationally.

Programming veteran Joel Stillerman is joining Hulu as chief content officer. He comes from AMC Networks, where he is president, original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV.

In the newly created position, Stillerman will be responsible for “evolving and driving the overall content strategy for the company, and will oversee Hulu’s content acquisitions, originals development and content partner management teams,” said Hulu. Stillerman will join Hulu’s senior management team this summer and will report directly to Hopkins.

“This year is a transformative year for Hulu—not just in our products, but also our investment in acquired and original content,” said Hopkins. “Over the past several years, we’ve grown our audience and our content offering exponentially, and now is the right time to add Joel’s creative and strategic leadership to the team and drive the next phase of Hulu’s content business.”

Craig Erwich will maintain his role as Hulu’s senior VP and head of content and increase his focus on the company’s original programming.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

“So this is Christmas/And what have you done …”

AMC’s answer to that question, posed in “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, is an all-star concert honoring the late Beatle, who would have turned 75 this past Oct. 9.

The show, produced with Blackbird Presents and emceed by Kevin Bacon, took place Saturday, Dec. 5, at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. A two-and-a-half-hour version airs Saturday, Dec. 19, as Imagine: John Lennon 75th Birthday Concert at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) on AMC.

The Wire assumed AMC’s corporate ties to MSG played a role, but programming executive Joel Stillerman said Blackbird’s Keith Wortman brought the idea to AMC, booked the building and got the performers (including Steven Tyler, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson and The Roots) without any such help.

AMC, though, had put out the word earlier this year that it was on the lookout for nonfiction programming “against a filter of things that feel event-like,” either in the form of documentary series like The Making of the Mob or live happenings like concerts.

“We thought [Lennon] was the right artist to do this with, and it was the right time,” Stillerman, president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV, told The Wire a few days after the show.

While under discussion for several months, the concert event was fairly recently greenlit, Stillerman said. The theater, though, was filled that festive Saturday night with Lennon fans who bought tickets and others, including The Wire, invited as guests.

The house band, led by Don Was and Greg Phillinganes, was tight and the performances felt spontaneous — sometimes very much so. Only one song had to be done twice, to fi x a lighting issue during Spoon’s lively “Hey Bulldog.”

Stillerman, who worked on many live shows at MTV and as an independent producer before joining AMC, said the whole thing was remarkably drama-free. “Everybody just felt like they seriously wanted to be there for one reason, which was to honor a guy that they loved and who was hugely influential on them.”

“Happy Xmas” is definitely on the menu — performed by Aloe Blacc, Sheryl Crow and Peter Frampton — and Stillerman thought it was a highlight of the show. The Wire also enjoyed Willie Nelson’s “Imagine,” Blacc’s “Watching the Wheels” and the Brandon Flowers (of The Killers) version of “Instant Karma,” among others.

“We’re happy we did this,” Stillerman said, asked if viewers should expect more concerts from the home of The Walking Dead. “We love sort of defying expectations at AMC and trying things that are a little out of our comfort zone. I really think we got very fortunate with a night that felt like it had the right spirit, that had some great moments, that had some great emerging artists step up and blow people away in a very unexpected way. If there’s an opportunity to try and replicate that, we will, but no plans right now.”

— Kent Gibbons

Keeping Eyes On the Ball

Old acquaintances may be forgot, but media outlets with bigger plans than budgets should not forget that there is a free feed — hosts included — of the New Year’s Eve festivities in New York’s Times Square.

The Times Square Alliance is again teaming with Countdown Entertainment to provide a “clean” uninterrupted, HD satellite/fiber feed for domestic and international television outlets, broadcasters, cable networks and websites.

The feed will be hosted by Allison Hagendorf and three correspondents will cover the action, from the ball-raising ceremony to stage performances to the dropping of the ball at midnight.

Why is it free? “This is a public-private partnership … No one pays a ticket to come into Times Square, and we want to make it available to the broadcasters covering the event for free, too,” Countdown Entertainment president Jeff Straus told The Wire. That extends to cable operators and webmasters as well.

— John Eggerton

AMC, building on its formidable zombie franchise, said it has greenlit an unscripted series featuring Walking Dead star Norman Reedus.

Ride With Norman Reedus (working title) is set to debut in 2016 with six one-hour episodes.

AMC's The Walking Dead has grown into the highest rated series on TV. The network has cashed in on the series’s popularity with an aftershow — Talking Dead, which also draws millions of viewers on Sunday nights -- and more recently had the biggest series debut in cable history with Fear the Walking Dead, a spinoff that looks at the zombie apocalypse from an L.A. family’s perspective.

The new Reedus reality show will follow the actor and motorcycle enthusiast on the road as he explores biker culture and history. Each episode will begin in a different city and will feature companions, who could be actors, musicians, friends or bikers.

“We love being the home of people’s passion projects, and there is nobody more passionate about motorcycles than Norman Reedus,” said Joel Stillerman, president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV. “He is an avid rider and aficionado who is deeply immersed in motorcycle culture. There is also nobody more fun to hang out with."

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.