TV One continued African-American-targeted networks’ raid of the Hollywood production community, naming veteran Rose Catherine Pinkney as its executive vice president of programming and development.
Pinkney -- who has developed such shows as Fox’s gritty multiethnic cop series New York Undercover and South Central -- will create scripted skeins and movies for the African-lifestyles-oriented network.
“There’s been a void of choice for African-American viewers,” she said. “I’m excited to be invited to be part of the team that’s mandated to do quality programming for African-American viewers. It’s important that the Hollywood creative community understands that we plan to reach out to them in an effort to create new programming for TV One.”
Pinkney was most recently senior VP of comedy development at Paramount Network Television, where over most of the past decade she’s developed more than 30 series for six networks, including UPN’s Girlfriends.
Prior to her tenure at Paramount, she served as VP and head of television for Upton Entertainment, where she oversaw the creation of New York Undercover, which now airs on TV One.
In the late 1980s, Pinkney was director of programming at Twentieth Century Fox, where she was instrumental in developing such cutting-edge series as The X-Files and where she supervised In Living Color.
“Rose Catherine’s stellar track record in television programming and development and strong relationships with the creative community will prove instrumental as we further define and strengthen TV One’s strategy,” TV One CEO Johnathan Rodgers said in a prepared statement.
Robert Townsend and Reginald Hudlin are other top Hollywood producers who have made the transition to minority-targeted cable networks at Black Family Channel and Black Entertainment Television, respectively.
