39 | Comedic Duo
Doug Herzog
Title: President, MTV Networks Ent Group
Age: 49
Education: BS, Emerson College
Social Media Quotient:
4
Michele Ganeless
Title: President, Comedy Central
Last Year: #2
Age: 44
Education: BS, Northwestern
Social Media Quotient: 4
edy Central, Spike TV and TV Land, but we
paired him with Ganeless because the two are
longtime colleagues and Comedy reigns as the
jewel in the MTVN Entertainment Group. While
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert continue to
headline, Ganeless and Herzog have brought
in new stars—notably Jeff Dunham. Particularly
impressive was the wrangling to bring back
The Sarah Silverman Project amidst belt-tightening. The solution? Sharing it with MTVN’s
Logo, which will co-finance it.
Not So Funny: With Comedy Central
programming head Lauren Corrao exiting at
year’s end, there are a lot of question marks.
Year Ahead: Hard to say what’s ahead
until a new programming chief gets to work.
40 | In-Vince-able
Vince McMahon
Title: Chairman, WWE
Age: 64
Education: East Carolina U
Social Media Quotient:
5
Why Them? Herzog’s group includes Com-
Ganeless:
Trait I Admire Most in People: Grace
Favorite TV Show Not on Comedy
Central: Mad Men
Favorite Part of My Job: Watching the
genius of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
every night.
Why Him? There’s nobody
more different in style from
Henry Schleiff than un-
derstated former ad-sales
chief Abbott, who replaced
Jaunty Henry in May. Plenty
of questions surround Hall-
mark. Can Hallmark Channel
recover its Top 10 ratings
spot this holiday season?
Will ad sales grow? (Q3
sales were down 7% vs the
’08 period. Affiliate revenue
offset much of that drop.)
Will Hallmark launch a se-
ries? One thing’s certain, the
man who doubled ad sales
Favorite Food: Pizza
Drink: A glass of ice water!
Favorite Restaurant:
Christiano’s, Syosset, NY, Billy
Joel wrote Scenes from an
Italian Restaurant about it.
Last Book Read: ESPN—
The Company
When I Need to Re-
charge, I: Walk my dogs.
Cable in ’10: Up, up, up
In ’ 10 the Economy
Will: Be better than ex-
pected.
Favorite iPhone/Black-
berry App: None
A Day Without Face-
book is: A good day
Twitter is: Just awful
Favorite Part of My Job:
Analyzing ratings
Worst Part of My Job:
Being away from my family
and animals.
Trait I Most Admire in
People: Integrity
Fave Show Not on Hall-
mark: Meet The Press
3 Things I’d Take to
a Deserted Island: My
dogs, my wife, my kids (not
in that order!)
Childhood Hero: Bryan
Trottier
I Wish My Kids Would:
Grow up to be solid citizens
with good educations and
respected in their trades.
Best Business Advice:
Be prepared.
41 | Answer Man
Bill Abbott
Title: President/CEO,
Crown Media Holdings/Hall-
mark Channels
Age: In the family friendly
demo
Education: BA, College of
the Holy Cross
Social Media Quotient:
3
for Crown in the past four
years knows from questions.
He was one of the few 100
to answer nearly all of ours.
Many thanks, Bill.
Why Him? Behind every
great (show)man is, er, no
longer a woman. Wife and
WWE CEO Linda left the ring
this summer to pursue the
Republican nod to challenge
Sen Chris Dodd (D-CT). Son
and EVP Global Media Shane
inexplicably departed soon after “to pursue other opportunities in the marketplace,” Vince
said. While those losses could
be large, WWE’s stellar cable
ratings continued apace in
’09 (in late Oct USA notched
7 of the top 10 shows, led by
WWE’s 3. 8 rating), revenue
growth for live and TV events
rose 13% and the subtle
shift of WWE’s product to the
mainstream moved ahead.
Proud As A…: Vince got
ol’ pal Trump to announce in
June on Monday Night RAW
that the Donald was buying
RAW. NBCU issued a release
confirming it. Two days later
NBCU apologized for its bogus release, but RAW had its
best ratings in 7 years.
The Year Ahead:
If the record $52mln in gross
sales for WrestleMania ’09
didn’t prove WWE is recession
resistant, would a shot to the
solar plexus convince you?
CableFAX: The Magazine
December 2009
cablefaxmag.com
27
