TV One has hired Dexter Cole as senior vice president, program scheduling & acquisitions. A former TV One vice president of research, he then spent five years at Discovery Communications as vice president of programming at Science, where he introduced the series Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman and An Idiot Abroad; acquired Firefly and Fringe and launched the channel’s annual “Are We Alone?” stunt, according to TV One. Cole will oversee TV One's program planning and scheduling across linear and non-linear platforms and spearheads acquisition strategy. He starts today (Jan. 5), reporting to network president Brad Siegel.
“Dexter’s impressive professional background, breadth of programming planning experience and his proven record of smart scheduling successes will be a vital asset to our team,” Siegel said in a release. “We look forward to his return and know he will be integral in helping TV One achieve our ratings goals across multiple platforms.”
Prior to his earlier, 2008-10 stint at TV One, he was at Discovery Communications and managed research for each of the five major Discovery networks at that time: Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel and Discovery Health Channel, most notably at TLC.
