Fremantle has promoted Kevin Woodward to executive vice president of production.
In his new role, he will oversee all physical production for the company’s U.S. unscripted studio, including pre-production, budgeting, production and post-production for development projects and active productions. This will include oversight of “Family Feud,” “American Idol” and “America’s Got Talent” as well as Fremantle’s Haven Studios operations, which permanently houses “Let’s Make A Deal” and “The Price Is Right.”
Woodward, who will continue to report to Fremantle North America COO Suzanne Lopez, first joined the company in 2014 and most recently served as senior vice president of production. Prior to Fremantle, he worked as a freelance production accountant across a variety of Fremantle unscripted shows and a slew of shorter-run projects.
“Kevin has been instrumental in the success of our growing day-to-day production needs,” Lopez said in a Friday statement. “I know that with his keen understanding of our unscripted series and valuable relationships with EICs, showrunners and partners, he will continue to innovate and expand our production capabilities and solutions across our wide slate of unscripted projects.”
“I am excited about the continued success of the company as we produce audience-beloved, iconic shows like ‘The Price Is Right’ and ‘Family Feud’ and add new projects to our robust unscripted slate,” Woodward added. “I have always viewed Fremantle as the standard in the unscripted industry, as both a creator and producer, and it’s an honor to continue my journey as part of such a stellar team.”
Fremantle’s unscripted fall season includes new episodes of “Let’s Make a Deal” Season 16, “Celebrity Family Feud” Season 10, “The Price Is Right” Season 53, while Season 19 of “America’s Got Talent” also just wrapped and “American Idol” will soon premiere the franchise’s 23rd season. Additionally, Original Productions’ “Deadliest Catch” is nearing the end of its 20th season, while Season 18 of “Bering Sea Gold” has just wrapped.
In addition to Woodward, Ryan Abbott, senior vice president of post-production, operations and music for Original Productions, will move into an expanded post production and supervisory music role on Fremantle productions. Abbott will continue to oversee operations for Max Post, a leading post-production service and rental company.
Since joining the division in 2017, Abbott has worked on titles such as “Deadliest Catch,” “Jay Leno’s Garage” and more. Prior to OP, Abbott was head of post-production for 495 Productions. He will continue to report to Original Productions president Jeff Hasler.
“Having Ryan expand his expertise to Fremantle shows will bring our post-production workflow and efficiency to the peak of excellence,” Lopez noted.
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