Spike TV has hired Chris Rantamaki to the newly created
position of vice president, original series, the network said Tuesday. He will
be based in California.
Rantamaki joins Spike TV from Discovery Channel, where he
was vice president of production. In his new position, he will be responsible
for overseeing the development on non-scripted series as part of Spike's
ongoing effort to broaden its audience.
"We're thrilled to add someone of Chris' caliber to our
team," said Sharon Levy, executive VP, original series and animation, to whom
Rantamaki will report. "With such extensive experience in the reality
television world, we look forward to him playing an instrumental part in
developing programming that resonates with our
viewers."
Rantamaki was at Dicovery for four years, overseeing series
like Auction Kings and Expedition Alaska. Prior to that, he was a producer of various
reality series and talk shows.
