Gabel, Bass, Miller Join Debmar-Mercury’s ‘Wendy Williams’

Debmar-Mercury’s The Wendy Williams Show is gearing up for its July 13 premiere in national syndication, hiring Jason Gabel and Suzanne Bass to be supervising producers and six-time Emmy winner Deb Miller to direct. All three will report to executive producer Rob Dauber.

Gabel was senior producer on Warner Bros.’ Ellen, which earned four Emmys as daytime’s outstanding talk show during his tenure. He also has served as associate producer on Warner Bros.’ Rosie O’Donnell and producer on the studio’s Caroline Rhea.

Bass was coordinating producer on NBC Universal’s Emmy-winning Martha Stewart for the past four seasons. She’s also worked on Rosie and Warner Bros.’ Extra.

Miller returns to Wendy Williams after directing last summer’s six-week trial. Most recently, she worked with Bass on Martha, and has directed Rosie and Fashionably Late with Stacy London.

Other hires include Deirdre Dod and James Avenell as talent bookers and executives. Both have worked on Rosie, Martha and David Letterman. Liza Persky was named producer and Tristan Zimmerman web producer.

Returning to the show are producers Joelle Dawson-Calia, Lorraine Haughton and Alia Zamel, all of whom worked on last summer’s test run.

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.