CNN Names Executive Producer for Campbell Brown’s Show

Mitchell Semel to Be Named EP of Primetime Show, to Debut in February

By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/9/2007 2:48:00 PM

Mitchell Semel, a former comedy-development executive at CBS and NBC, was tapped to be the executive producer for Campbell Brown’s CNN show.

Semel does not come from the ranks of news producers, although he has considerable experience in the talk-show milieu with oversight roles on Craig Kilborn’s and Tom Snyder’s shows at CBS, Greg Kinnear’s and Conan O'Brien's shows at NBC and Politically Correct with Bill Maher when it was on Comedy Central.

“He’s a news junkie who’s not constrained by having grown up in the news business,” said Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. “I think a lot of primetime cable has fallen into a predictable pattern and we want to bust out of that and, by the way, [Semel] has a track record of accomplishing that.”

Like Paula Zahn before her, Brown will be competing with two outspoken male pundits -- MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly -- in the 8 p.m. hour. CNN will again attempt to mount a counterprogramming choice with Brown’s show, which is set to debut in late February.

“I think there’s a conventional wisdom that the only thing you can do in cable is have an over-the-top, opinionated host, period. And that couldn’t possibly be the case,” Klein said, adding that viewers looking for news will have an alternative at 8 p.m.

Semel officially starts Nov. 12, when he will begin fleshing out the format particulars with Brown.

Semel also supervised and designed the launch of the Pentagon Channel Web site for the Department of Defense, according to his Web site.

Brown jumped to CNN from NBC News last fall. Her primetime show, which will air at 8 p.m. beginning late February, will be a mix of topical news and interviews. She’ll make her debut on the network Nov. 15 during CNN’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas, where she’ll be a panelist along with American Morning’s John Roberts. CNN political anchor Wolf Blitzer will moderate the debate.

Brown, who had to sit out a noncompete clause in her NBC contract until this month, is pregnant with her first child and due in late December. (Her husband, Dan Senor, is a Republican strategist and Fox News Channel contributor.)