Robert_Greenblatt

Robert Greenblatt

Robert Greenblatt

American television executive

This article is about the American television executive. For the American physician, see Robert Benjamin Greenblatt. For the American anti-war activist, see Robert Greenblatt (anti war activist).

Robert Greenblatt (born 1959/1960) is an American television executive, former Chairman of NBC Entertainment[3][4][5] and former Chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment. He has since launched his production company, The Green Room.[6]

Quick Facts Born, Nationality ...

Early life and education

Greenblatt was born and raised in Rockford, Illinois, USA.[1] He was raised Catholic and attended Boylan Catholic High School.[7][2] He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre management from the University of Illinois and a Master of Arts in arts administration from the University of Wisconsin's Madison School of Business. He also earned a Master of Fine Arts from the USC School of Cinema-Television's Peter Stark Producing Program.[4]

Career

Greenblatt began his television career at the Fox Broadcasting Company, where he ran prime-time programming and developed such shows as the original Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place, The X-Files, and Party of Five.[3][4]

From 1997 to 2003, Greenblatt was a producer (along with David Janollari through their production company, The Greenblatt Janollari Studio) of over a dozen series for various networks, including Six Feet Under, along with the 2005 miniseries Elvis and Gregory Nava's American Family for PBS.[3][4]

From 2003 to 2010, Greenblatt was President of Entertainment for Showtime.[8] He supervised a slate of original programming that dramatically repositioned the pay channel as a leader in the premium cable business. Under his leadership, he developed and supervised award-winning shows like Weeds, Dexter, Californication, The Tudors, Nurse Jackie, and United States of Tara.[3][4]

As a theatrical producer, Greenblatt developed the musical stage adaptation of 9 to 5, which premiered on Broadway in April 2009 and closed September 2009, with the National Tour starting in September 2010. It was nominated for four Tony Awards.[3][4]

Greenblatt was the chairman of NBC Entertainment. He succeeded Jeff Gaspin in January 2011 after Comcast took control of the newly renamed NBCUniversal.[3][9]

On March 4, 2019, Greenblatt was named as the chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment as part of AT&T's reorganization of WarnerMedia. He oversaw HBO, Cinemax, TBS, TNT and TruTV.[10] He was responsible for helping oversee the development of HBO Max, the company's streaming service which launched in May 2020.[11] He was fired from WarnerMedia in August 2020 amid restructuring.[12][13] More recently, he launched his own production company with a deal at Lionsgate.[14]

Politics

In August 2016, Greenblatt labeled then presidential candidate Donald Trump as "toxic" and "demented".[15]

Personal life

Greenblatt is the first and only openly gay broadcast TV president.[16]

References

  1. [1]
    Stoeffel, Kat (22 March 2011). "Bob Greenblatt's Season of Fiats at NBC". New York Observer. Archived from the original on 25 March 2011.
  2. [2]
    Baum, Geraldine (30 April 2009). "TV Exec Turns Back the Clock to Stage '9 to 5'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  3. [3]
    "Robert Greenblatt, Chairman NBC Entertainment". NBCUniversal. NBCUniversal, Inc. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  4. [4]
    "Showtime Executive Biography: Robert Greenblatt". Sho.com. Archived from the original on 29 June 2009. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  5. [5]
    Schechner, Sam (13 July 2011). "NBC Names Jennifer Salke New Entertainment President". Wall Street Journal.
  6. [6]
    "Comcast/NBC fired and insulted Trump and now faces a grudge-holding president". Variety. August 17, 2021.
  7. [7]
    "NBC's Greenblatt rebuilds network long in disarray". WWSB. Archived from the original on October 4, 2018. Retrieved January 4, 2013. Greenblatt boils down his background this way: a gay, Catholic kid with a Jewish last name who grew up in rural Rockford, Ill.
  8. [8]
    Stelter, Brian (25 June 2010). "Showtime's President Is Said to Be Stepping Down". New York Times.
  9. [9]
    Carter, Bill (21 November 2010). "Comcast's Plans for Executives Offer Clues to Future of NBC". New York Times.
  10. [10]
    Flint, Joe (4 March 2019). "AT&T considers combining HBO, Turner units, adding Robert Greenblatt". MarketWatch.
  11. [11]
    Frank Pallotta (27 May 2020). "HBO Max chief on launching the new service during a pandemic". CNN. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  12. [12]
    "Bob Greenblatt, Kevin Reilly Out Amid Major WarnerMedia Restructuring | Hollywood Reporter". www.hollywoodreporter.com. 7 August 2020. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  13. [13]
    Smith, Ben (2020-08-16). "The Week Old Hollywood Finally, Actually Died". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  14. [14]
    Baysinger, Tim (2021-08-17). "Bob Greenblatt Launches Production Company, Sets First-Look Deal With Lionsgate". TheWrap. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
  15. [15]
    "Comcast/NBC fired and insulted Trump and now faces a grudge-holding president". The Philadelphia Inquirer. January 13, 2017.
  16. [16]
    Jensen, Michael (7 April 2011). "Interview: Robert Greenblatt Says His Being First Gay Broadcast TV President is No Big Deal. We Beg to Differ!". AfterElton.com.
Preceded by Chairman of NBC Entertainment
2011–2018		 Succeeded by
George Cheeks and Paul Telegdy
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