Top guns

Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/25/2000

So who's going to run Fox's syndication arm, Twentieth Television? The top spot has been vacant since the death last March of Rick Jacobson. FOX TV Stations Chairman Mitch Stern has been overseeing the division since, but sources say he is moving to New York to oversee all of Fox's owned and operated stations and is ready to tap a new Twentieth president.

Former Columbia TriStar TV Distribution President Barry Thurston, King World marketing maven Bob Cook and Paramount Domestic Television's sales head John Nogawski, are in the running, sources say. Thurston stepped down as CTTD's top syndication executive earlier this year. Cook, whose contract with King World is up in early 2001, is also said to have received an offer to rejoin former King World President Ed Wilson at NBC. Wilson, who last month was named head of NBC's new syndication unit, has a long history with Cook. Sources say Nogawski, who recently signed a long-term pact at Paramount, is a favorite of Stern. We'll all know in a couple weeks.