Showtime has a ton of momentum and is well-poised to keep the mojo rolling as the new year progresses. Dexter: New Blood started in November, giving fans of the original series a look at what Dexter Morgan is up to these days, and bringing in new viewers as well. A week later, Yellowjackets, about a girls’ soccer team involved in a plane crash, premiered. The first season wrapped in mid-January and was by all accounts a smash. 

Overseeing original programming is Amy Israel. She manages the development and production of all scripted series at Showtime, and anticipates the network retaining its hot hand throughout 2022, thanks to the likes of Billions, Three Women, Super Pumped and other bold originals.

Swinging for the Fences

“With every project, we look for shows that feel in some way like they are taking a big swing,” Israel said. “There is a voice and a vision that is undeniable and singular and deeply entertaining.”

That description certainly applies to Yellowjackets, already renewed for a second season. Created and executive produced by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, the dark drama details both the teen girls, getting by in the woods after the horrific crash, and the characters as adults, dealing with the steps they took to survive years after they are reintegrated into society. Lyle and Nickerson came in with a crystal-
clear vision, Israel said, and delivered on a ceaselessly propulsive story.

“It’s a tremendously overwhelming and gratifying experience to see the resounding response,” Israel said. “You love all your babies the same, but it’s really gratifying when one makes that big of an impact.”

It’s a busy time for Showtime, which has seven new scripted shows on the schedule for 2022, up from three last year. Among the veteran series, Ray Donovan wrapped with a movie January 14. Season six of Billions began January 23, and Israel said it will make a mark. “There are new characters and new allegiances that will keep everyone on their toes,” she said. “It’s a tremendously exciting season that will continue to be a deeply entertaining, zeitgeisty show that reflects our times.”

Israel comes from the film world, working at New Regency, where she was executive VP, and Paramount Vantage, where she was head of production and acquisition. Before that, she was at Miramax Films and was a film producer. 

She recalled seeing movies getting more dependent on intellectual property, and less so on the audacious visions of auteurs. Television, meanwhile, was heading into its peak period. “I was looking for new challenges,” Israel said, “and felt the film world had lost a little bit of its sparkle.”

Jana Winograde, Showtime president of entertainment, said Israel plays a key role in attracting elite producers, directors and performers to the network, where they know they’ll get full support in realizing their vision. “One of our calling cards is being a place for top talent, and I give Amy a lot of credit for that,” she said.

Persistence Pays Off

Winograde noted Israel’s “persistence,” whether it’s acquiring the rights to a book, luring a producer with a passion project or helping a director get their project to full fruition. “When there’s an artist she wants to work with, or a voice she wants to get out of the artist, she is relentless,” Winograde said. 

Winograde mentioned Israel’s dogged pursuit of the rights to Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women novel, and her work with Brian Koppelman and David Levien on Super Pumped. 

Three Women, which Showtime calls an “intimate, haunting portrayal of American female desire,” has Shailene Woodley in the cast. Super Pumped is an anthology series, each season exploring a story that rocked the business world. Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber features Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kyle Chandler and Uma Thurman, and premiered February 27. 

Israel, raised in Brooklyn, enjoys time with family, travel and photography when she’s not building Showtime series. She’s an active mentor in the workplace and stays in touch with former assistants, continuing to teach them a few things and answer their questions. “It’s really important to me to help them grow,” she said.

Israel is hopeful a few of the Showtime rookies she has helped grow will break out the way Yellowjackets has. “With every new show,” she said, “we try to make something that goes into new territories that viewers haven’t seen before.” ■

Showtime’s Gervonta Davis-Leo Santa Cruz pay-per-view boxing match highlights a sports weekend dominated by college and pro football telecasts.

The Halloween fight between three-time world champion Davis and four-division world champion Santa Cruz will retail at a suggested price of $74.99 and will feature a three-card undercard, according to Showtime.  

Related: PPV Fights Change Dates, States to Accommodate the Return of Fans 

College football continues to ramp up with a full slate of games across numerous channels. Top-ranked Clemson on Saturday will host Boston College on ABC without star quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who earlier this week tested positive for COVID-19.  Other high profile games include a primetime matchup between third-ranked Ohio State and Penn State (ABC.)

The NFL's week seven slate of games takes place Sunday afternoon, culminated by NBC's Sunday Night Football telecast between two struggling teams, the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles. 

In other sports, NBC and NBCSN on Saturday continue their Premier League coverage, while FS2 offers a live Liga MX game on Saturday. Golf Channel has EPGA Tour and PGA tour golf coverage on Saturday and Sunday. 

ESPNNews and ESPN2 will cover the Korean Baseball League (KBO) post-season beginning Nov. 1, and culminating with the Korean Series later in the month. 

NAME: Julia Veale
TITLE: Executive VP, Business, Product Development & Management
COMPANY: Showtime Networks
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Veale has been a key player in launching Showtime’s streaming service, on-demand services, HD channels, interactive TV and the formation of the joint venture with the Smithsonian Institution to create Smithsonian Networks. On her watch Showtime launched its direct-to-consumer app on all of the major streaming platforms.
QUOTABLE: “I’m not an engineer by training, but I have always spent a lot of quality time with engineers. That was my start in understanding technology, or at least understanding what the possibilities could be with technology.”

Julia Veale knows a lot of things. But over a career that has spanned nearly three decades in the cable business, perhaps the most important thing she knows is what she doesn’t want.

That has led the Showtime executive — her official title is executive vice president, business, product development & management for Showtime Networks — on a variety of career paths over the past several years. Whatever road she chose, it inevitably led to what has been her goal since she graduated from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management in 1993: a role in helping to create what was known in a simpler time as interactive TV.

A New Hampshire native, Veale went to Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, earning a degree in economics and political science. But Kellogg was where she found her footing.

“Kellogg was the transition point for me,” Veale said. It was there, after a brief stint as a commercial banker out of college, that she began trying to figure out what to do with the rest of her life.

“I knew I didn’t want to be a management consultant, I knew I didn’t want to be in investment banking, those things didn’t really interest me,” she said. “And along the way, in the early ’90s, the mid ’90s, I became fascinated by the promise of interactive TV. That’s when the first trials for video-on-demand were starting. That piqued my interest. That was what I wanted to do when I got out of school.”

Interactive Interests

Interactive TV was in its infancy at that time, mainly focusing on transactional operations, like ordering pizzas via remote. It became clear pretty quickly that Veale’s career in that fledgling segment of the business wasn’t quite ready for primetime. So after a stint sleeping on friends’ couches and watching her classmates land jobs, she focused on another part of the industry — technology — and landed a position at tech pioneer General Instrument.

“I wrote a paper with a group at Kellogg on TCI [Tele-Communications Inc.] and they happened to be one of GI’s biggest customers,” Veale said. “I sent that paper and my resume to the head of GI and said I really want to work for you guys and I got an interview. It was sort of being in the right place at the right time.”

While Veale wasn’t a techie, her time at GI proved to be invaluable. She was working in corporate development while the company was heavily involved in creating the first digital set-top box.

“I worked with the head of advanced development and a team was formed and it ended up launching one of the first cable modems, so it was sort of in the early broadband space,” Veale said. “Fast-forward a few years, technology advanced and the market kind of caught up to what I was really initially interested in.”

That was 1999, and after hearing about an opportunity at Showtime, Veale took a position there, first working on the programmer’s on-demand products. As broadband started to become more prevalent, Showtime recognized the opportunity and importance of enabling its subscribers to access content on their devices, which led to the launch of the premium network’s authentication service, Showtime Anytime, in 2010.

“That was obviously interesting to figure out what we needed to do, gave us creative control over users’ experience with Showtime and gave us opportunities to gain new insights into consumer behavior because now we have a one-to-one direct relationship with subscribers,” Veale said.

Veale helped create a dedicated product team, putting together folks with experience in product development; product management and user experience design; software development and data engineering; and data science and quality assurance, helping to create that expertise in-house.

“It’s been a progression,” Veale said, noting that Showtime’s streaming initially launched with on-demand programming, with a live feed added later. In 2015, the network officially launched its over-the-top service, simply called Showtime. But Veale recognizes the importance of remembering where you came from.

“Showtime Anytime, our authentication service, gave us a big leg up in being able to launch an OTT service,” she said. “With that we gained greater insight into the entire subscriber life cycle.”

Behavioral Insights

Showtime Networks senior vice president, business/product development Amy Salerno said a knack for keeping ahead of the curve, as well as a talent for building great teams, has been a continuous thread throughout Veale’s tenure at the programmer.

“Julia has been at the forefront of Showtime’s digital product e6volution, staying ahead of changes in the marketplace and finding opportunities to transform the way people buy and watch Showtime,” Salerno said. “In addition to developing and managing Showtime Anytime and the Showtime standalone streaming service on every major platform, Julia has built a best-in-class product team that is focused on continually innovating our user experience and creating data-driven products and features. Julia has created a team culture that fosters collaboration, creativity and is fun to be a part of!”

Showtime said Friday that Gary Garfinkel, co-head, content acquisitions at Showtime Networks Inc., died from an illness that morning at age 55 at home with his family.

“Gary was one of the most warm and welcoming people I’ve known, and was beloved by everyone who worked with him at Showtime over the past 25 years,” David Nevins, president and CEO, Showtime Networks Inc., said in a statement. “He was a great warrior and advocate for our company and worked hard to bring the best content to our service. In particular, many stand-up comedians credit Gary for giving them the early exposure that made their careers. He played a key role in cementing Showtime as a major premium network, and all of us who worked with him valued his taste, his counsel and his integrity. We will miss him terribly.”

Showtime said that, along with Kent Sevener, Garfinkel was responsible for the evaluation, negotiation and acquisition of feature films, documentaries, stand-up comedy, specials and music programs for all of Showtime Networks' services. Garfinkel was integrally involved with programming, business development, digital media and specialized programming for on-air destinations that highlight documentaries, science fiction and horror. He dramatically increased stand-up comedy on the network, expanding the portfolio to 39 comedy specials in 2012, under the "Laugh Out Loud" on-air banner.

He joined Showtime in 1993. Earlier he served as senior VP, film acquisitions, negotiating first-run theatrical output and library deals with the major studios and licensing deals with independent suppliers. He built programming models for the development of new channels and significantly increased the volume of acquisitions for Showtime's on-demand and TV-everywhere services, the CBS-owned programmer said.

Before joining Showtime, Garfinkel worked at Sony Pictures Entertainment as an international business analyst and in New York at Salomon Brothers as a foreign exchange analyst, while also attending New York University Stern School of Business. He received a B.S. in Finance from Boston University.

In lieu of flowers, the Garfinkel family suggested donations in Gary’s name to The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University and the UCLA Brain Cancer Research Fund.

Smithsonian Channel has launched on Hulu With Live TV and YouTube TV, including live linear and on-demand content from the channel, as well as TV everywhere authentication on those virtual MVPD streaming services.

Hulu With Live TV subscribers can watch the channel’s programming on Apple TV (4th generation), Amazon Fire TV, 2017 Samsung Smart TVs, Roku, iOS devices, Android phones and tablets, Chromecast, Nintendo Switch and Xbox, Smithsonian Channel (a joint venture of Showtime Networks and the Smithsonian Institution) said in a release. YouTubeTV is currently available on iOS, Android, Chromecast and Xbox, the network said.

READ MORE: YouTube TV Tunes in 35 More Markets

“In this ever-changing landscape, we’re always looking for ways to expand our existing audience” Smithsonian Channel president Tom Hayden said in a release. “We are thrilled that Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV subscribers now have access to our award-winning programming, and look forward to strong partnerships with two of the biggest leaders in digital streaming.”

READ MORE: Hulu Optimizes Web Platform for Live TV

Smithsonian Channel programs include the series Aerial America, The Lost Tapes and Air Disasters.

Showtime Networks said it has promoted Julia Veale to executive vice president, business, product development and management, citing her leadership in the rollouts of the Showtime streaming service and the Showtime Anytime authenticated viewing platform. The former senior vice president continues to report to Tom Christie, Showtime's recently promoted chief operating officer, and to be responsible for product strategy, development and management for Showtime subscription services across distribution platforms, technologies and devices. Before her work with the in-house product team on the streaming and TV-everywhere rollouts, Veale was a key player in the development of SNI on-demand services, HD multiplex channels and interactive TV. She also was an important part of negotiations with Internet partners on the standalone streaming service and with the Smithsonian Institution on creating Showtime Networks. 

“Julia’s unique combination of talents, which blend long-term strategic vision with an uncompromising attention to detail, has helped guide the company’s business and product development efforts for over a decade,” Christie said in a release. “Under Julia’s leadership, Showtime has demonstrated a near flawless introduction of products starting from subscription video on demand many years ago, to the Showtime Anytime TV Everywhere launch, and of course most recently the Showtime stand-alone streaming service on key internet platforms.”

Vinnie Malhotra, former senior vice president for development and acquisitions at CNN Worldwide, is joining Showtime Networks as senior VP, documentaries, unscripted and sports programming, a new role at Showtime.

Malhotra will oversee the development and production of Showtime’s original unscripted and documentary programming, as well as all future documentary theatrical releases. He will also work closely with Stephen Espinoza, executive VP and general manager of sports and event programming.

Malhotra will be based in Los Angeles and will report to Gary Levine, Showtime Networks's new president of programming.

“We are proud that Showtime has become a competitive player in the documentary world and a creative haven for award-winning filmmakers,” Levine said. “Vinnie is joining our amazing team at an exciting time."

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Gary Levine has been named president of programming at Showtime Networks, where he will now add responsibility for casting and program operations to his previous duties, the development and creative oversight of the network's original series, documentaries and specials across all platforms.

Levine joned Showtime as executive VP of original programming in 2001, in his new position, he will continue continue reporting to David Nevins, president of Showtime Networks.

"Gary has been an integral part of building Showtime Networks' stellar original programming brand," Nevins said. "He also happens to be one of the most respected creative executives in the business because he knows how to bring out the best in everyone who works with him. Gary has proven to be an invaluable creative partner to me since the day I arrived at Showtime. I am confident that in his expanded role he will lead our programming team to outstanding new heights."

Showtime's originals include series Homeland, The Affair, Ray Donovan, Shameless and Masters of Sex, as well as a batch of movies and documentaries.

Prior to joining Showtime, Levine was president of Internet entertainment company Icebox. Previously, he headed development at Warner Brothers Television, Witt-Thomas Productions and ABC (drama).

Read mroe at broadcastingcable.com.