CMT Names Joe Livecchi SVP, Development

Related: CMT

CMT has tapped television industry veteran Joe Livecchi, for the newly-created position of Senior Vice President, Development, it was announced today by Jayson Dinsmore, EVP Development and Programming, CMT. Livecchi is charged with overseeing multiple network development teams as well as all external and third party productions. Livecchi will be based at the Viacom Media Network headquarters in New York and will report to Dinsmore, effective immediately. CMT's West Coast development team of Claire McCabe, Melanie Moreau and Eliot Goldberg will report to Livecchi.

"Joe is a fantastic collaborator, a passionate story teller, and an even more dynamic person," says Dinsmore. "As we continue to drive forward our ambitious plan to provide more surprising, engaging, and compelling programming, having Joe in the mix will be a tremendous asset to CMT. I couldn't be happier to bring him on board."

"CMT's explosive growth is a tremendous opportunity for the creative community," says Livecchi. "We are looking to take risks with out of the box ideas and big characters. Any producer who is not actively developing for CMT right now will be kicking themselves in two years."

Livecchi joins CMT at a time of major change in the network, which is expanding and growing into more hours of original programming. Under Dinsmore's leadership, the network recently announced a new deal with Dog the Bounty Hunter and it just made ratings history with the launch of the second season of "Redneck Island," which became the highest rated regularly scheduled CMT season launch of all time.

Livecchi is an Executive Producer and the owner of Majority Rules Media. He recently had a multi-year output deal with global powerhouse ITV Studios where he created and sold multiple original home grown projects to CBS, A&E, History Channel, Travel Channel, VH1, The Food Network and TLC.

In January 2009, Livecchi joined BBC Worldwide as Executive Producer of development and production overseeing TLC's "What Not To Wear" and "Moving Up." Previously, Livecchi had spent the past five years as an Executive Producer on an overall deal at Endemol USA where he created and produced scripted and non-scripted projects including SoapNet's "Southern Belles," MTV's "Phone Exchange," Lifetime's "Gay, Straight or Taken," the WB's "My New Family," Fox's "The Next Great Champ" and the CW's "Nanny Dallas." Livecchi also helped to staff Endemol's in house think tank.

From 1999-2004, Livecchi served as Vice President and Creative Director of NBC 2000, a creative think tank within The NBC Agency in Burbank, CA. Livecchi also created and supervised award-winning campaigns for everything from The Olympics to "Friends" and "The Apprentice." As the Creative Director of advertising for nbci.com and snap.com, Livecchi oversaw the creative for the sites' initial launch. In addition to his ad exec duties at NBC, Livecchi created and executive produced the reality special "The One That Got Away" and the internationally syndicated scripted action-comedy series "She Spies."

Livecchi made his transition into his current posts after serving as Director of Interstitial Programming for ABC from 1997-99. There, Livecchi launched "Sports Night," "Dharma & Greg" and more while creating original weekly content for TGIF including national contests, integrations and big name live concerts. Livecchi oversaw and booked live concert programming featuring the Spice Girls, N'Sync and Backstreet Boys. Livecchi was also ABC's creative liaison to ABC's then advertising agency Chiat Day. Prior to ABC, Livecchi served as Director of Advertising for Paramount Domestic Television. Livecchi's live producing credits include the "Maury Povich Show," "Dick Clark's New Year's Eve" ('1993-96) and "Good Morning America" (1991-92).

Livecchi graduated from Hofstra University in 1990 with a degree in television and radio and completed an internship in London. He and his wife Tracy have two daughters, Sophia and Grace.

CMT, a unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), is the leading television and digital authority on country music and entertainment, reaching more than 92 million homes in the U.S. CMT and its website, CMT.com, offer an unparalleled mix of music, news, live concerts and series and is the top resource for country music on demand. The network's digital platforms include the 24-hour music channel, CMT Pure Country, CMT Mobile and CMT VOD.