Touchstone Names Drama, Comedy Execs

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Morgan Wandell and Alex Weinberger will run Touchstone Television's drama and comedy departments, respectively.

They will report to Mark Pedowitz, Touchstone's president. Wandell returns to the studio from Channel One News, where he was president of programming. He previously worked with Franz at Touchstone.

Weinberger adds responsibility for developing new comedies to her existing job of overseeing all of the studio's current comedies. Wandell replaces Suzanne Patmore-Gibbs, who moved over to head ABC's drama development after Stephen McPherson, Touchstone's former president, took over as president of ABC Entertainment.

Patmore-Gibbs brought Josh Barry and Jocelyn Diaz with her as vice president and director of drama development, respectively. McPherson last month named former Touchstone producer Francie Calfo as ABC's executive vice president of drama and comedy development.

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.