Maureen Fitzpatrick Departs As EP of NBCU’s ‘Access Hollywood’
Started with NBCU as a consultant in 2018
Maureen Fitzpatrick, executive producer of NBCUniversal’s Access Hollywood and Access Daily, is leaving the company after five years, an NBCU spokeswoman confirmed late Wednesday.
Also departing is Justin Batey, who served as senior executive in charge of production.
Fitzpatrick joined Access Hollywood as a consultant in 2018 and began executive producing the show in March 2019. That fall, the main telecast’s name reverted back to Access Hollywood, after having been changed to just Access in 2017 under former executive producer Rob Silverstein, and Access Live became Access Daily. Access Hollywood’s main host, Mario Lopez, also came over from Warner Bros.’ Extra in 2019, while Extra hired former Access Hollywood host Billy Bush that same year. Both Access Hollywood and Access Daily have been renewed through 2025. Another spin-off, All Access, which was tested on six NBC-owned stations and focused on true-crime and human-interest stories, aired from 2019-21.
During her time at NBCU, Fitzpatrick also developed and oversaw production for Oxygen’s Crime Time pilot and for syndicated series Judge Jerry, which starred Jerry Springer and aired from 2019-22. Judge Jerry still airs on TV stations as part of NBCU's court-and-talk offering that packages repeats of Judge Jerry and long-running talk show Jerry Springer.
Prior to joining NBCU, Fitzpatrick worked in development at CBS Television Distribution (now CBS Media Ventures), where she developed and executive produced Judge Judy spinoff Hot Bench from 2014-17. She then launched Tegna’s Daily Blast Live in 2017. Before coming to CBS, Fitzpatrick worked as senior vice president of comedy development at Fremantle.
This story first appeared at The Wrap.
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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.