Heather Olander has been named Syfy's senior vice president, alternative series development and production, effective immediately. She reports to Bill McGoldrick, executive VP of original content for Syfy.
Until early next year, Olander will also continue in her current role as SVP of USA alternative development and production.
Dave Howe, president Syfy and Chiller, said in a release, “Heather’s impressive pedigree and track record makes her the perfect choice to take over the reins of Syfy’s growing slate of high quality unscripted programming. Syfy is committed to developing innovative, ambitious and ground-breaking unscripted series that fulfill Syfy’s strategic goal to “imagine greater” across all of our content and I’m confident Heather’s creative leadership will help raise the bar even higher."
Bill McGoldrick, EVP, original content, Syfy, added in the release, “Heather did a great job launching USA Network into the reality space. We are very excited to bring an executive with her energy, taste and tenacity to Syfy where she will have a large canvas and many hours of alternative programming to oversee.”
Jackie De Crinis, USA’s EVP of programming and development, will continue to oversee both scripted and unscripted programming for USA, and will fill Olander’s role after her departure, the networks said.
Olander currently oversees the development of Chrisley Knows Best, the USA reality series that returns this fall for season two. In its first season, Chrisley Knows Best averaged 945,000 persons ages 18-49 and 1.7 million total viewers and was the network’s youngest original series to date with a median age of 35, the release said.
Prior to joining USA, Olander was vice president, programming and development for CBS Television Distribution where she was involved with developing new syndicated shows as well as overseeing current first-run strips. Earlier she was at MTV, as vice president of original series development and current programming.
