Shapiro-Mathes Out, O’Neill In at TLC
Discovery Communications is replacing TLC president and general manager Angela Shapiro-Mathes with Planet Green president and GM Eileen O’Neill.
By Alex Weprin -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/25/2008 1:42:00 PM
Discovery Communications is replacing TLC president and general manager Angela Shapiro-Mathes with Planet Green president and GM Eileen O’Neill.
O’Neill will continue to be based in Discovery’s Silver Spring, Md., headquarters.
“As a flexible company with a culture of accountability, we have to acknowledge when things do not go as planned,” Discovery CEO David Zaslav wrote in an e-mail to staffers. “Unfortunately, the recent strategy for TLC did not meet our ratings or operational goals. I am committed to improving upon these processes and lessons learned and restoring TLC to its full creative and business potential.”
Shapiro-Mathes, who assumed her leadership role at TLC in July 2007, oversaw the network’s move to Los Angeles, a first for any Discovery-owned channel. As a result of the leadership change, some elements of TLC that had been relocated last year are expected to return to Discovery’s East Coast headquarters.
“The TLC team in L.A. will continue business as usual while Eileen, Adria [Alpert-Romm] and I review structural needs on both coasts,” Zaslav said in the e-mail.
She also brought the Miss America Pageant to the network, brought host Paige Davis back to Trading Spaces and signed a development deal with talk-show host Kelly Ripa.
In her new role, O’Neill will be tasked with forming a new programming strategy for TLC.
“A cornerstone of the strategy will be storytelling around strong characters in the spirit of Little People, Big World, and of uplifting personal improvement as seen each week in What Not to Wear,” Zaslav said in the e-mail. “I am confident that Eileen understands TLC’s core audience and has the creative sensibilities to develop new programming consistent with its historical mission and that speaks to our audience's many life challenges and opportunities.”
O’Neill is a 17-year veteran of Discovery Communications, managing Discovery Health Channel before moving to Planet Green. She also oversaw TLC in an interim role last year, leading into the hiring of Shapiro-Mathis.
Planet Green launched June 4 following more than one year in development.
With the departure of O’Neill, Discovery tapped Clark Bunting, currently president of Discovery’s Emerging Networks Group, to oversee Planet Green until new executive leadership is named.
“My thanks to Angela for her hard work, leadership and passion over the past year,” Zaslav said in a statement. “She has diversified TLC’s programming mix and increased the network’s development presence in Los Angeles.”
He added, “Eileen is a proven cable programmer and has guided one of the most successful network introductions in Planet Green. Her exceptional reputation and understanding of TLC’s passionate audience makes Eileen the perfect executive to lead TLC.”
The company said the move was part of "a change in the creative and organizational direction for TLC."
(Click here to watch a video Q&A with O’Neill.)
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Does anyone have anything good to say about Angela Shapiro-Mathes? Everything I have read about her is negative! Is she really as tacky as everyone is saying on the net?
Debbie Magella - 7/27/2008 2:04:00 AM EDT -
How does this fraud keep getting hired in Hollywood? Having worked for her, let me tell you! Shapiro-Mathes uses smoke, mirrors and unabashed organ-teasing to bamboozle her way into power positions, only to eventually be unmasked for her tawdry tastes and utter lack of substance. Sad, but each time AngelaS&M is found out and forced out, she leaves a mess in her wake. Yes, she has become a tinseltown joke --- but the real joke is on those unassuming idiots who keep hiring her!
Regina Geary - 7/25/2008 11:36:00 PM EDT -
When will networks learn to avoid Angela Shapiro? This is a television
executive with questionable taste and a dubious track record of failure.
She was the dragon lady of ABC Daytime who never met a product
placement she didn't love...much to the chagrin of show producers.
Then she nearly destroys ABC Family by getting rid of just about every
show and stunt from its former Fox Family days, including the critically
acclaimed "Saving Grace" (not the one on TNT) and the popular "13
Nights of Halloween" (since restored by current ABC Family prez. Paul
Lee). Her "brilliant" replacements included a mercifully short lived
revival of "Dance Fever" and some pretty bad original movies. After a
stint at Fox in the studio division, she somehow managed to get hired
to run TLC. Her mission seemed to be re-branding a solid, respected
network and turning into a pale retread of the dreadfully programmed
Oxygen and WE. In the past year she has done little more than add a
bunch of poorly produced reality series, turned the creaky Miss
America Pageant into even more of a freak show, tinkered with great
shows like "What Not to Wear" and turned the marketing efforts of the
network into cheap looking, tacky affairs. Good riddance to her.
Jack Smythe - 7/25/2008 3:17:00 PM EDT
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