Stephen Brown has been promoted to executive vice president, programming and development of Twentieth Television, said Greg Meidel, president of Twentieth Television, to whom Brown will continue to report.”Stephen has not only successfully developed ‘The Ricki Lake Show’ and ‘Dish Nation’ for fall 2012, but his forward thinking ideas are making an impact across the industry. He has executed a robust social media campaign simultaneously generating buzz and reintroducing Ricki Lake to daytime audiences. Meanwhile, ‘Dish Nation,’ featuring the country’s top morning radio personalities, is positioned to reinvent the nightly strip by bringing laughs to entertainment news genre,” said Meidel in a statement.
Most recently, Brown served as senior vice president, programming and development at Twentieth Television, overseeing the launch of the first run game show “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?” and the ongoing production of “Judge Alex,” and television’s longest running court program, “Divorce Court.”
Brown added, “I look forward in continuing to bring new talent to the Twentieth family, and developing a diverse slate of fresh first-run syndicated programming.”
Prior to joining Twentieth Television as an executive in August 2005, Brown spent 17 years producing reality and game shows for network, cable and syndication. In the past Brown has created, produced or worked on 25 television shows and pilots. From March 2002 until March 2004 he was the executive producer of Sony’s Pyramid, starring Donny Osmond.
Brown also produced several shows for the Lifetime Network, including the top-rated Shop ‘til You Drop, which he co-created.
A native of upstate New York, Brown graduated from Colgate University with a B.A. in English, and took a job as an English teacher in Greenwich, Connecticut. In 1987, he decided to change careers and moved to Los Angeles. His first television position was as a writer on Love Connection.
