Gutteridge Takes the Mantle at Fremantle

Tom Gutteridge is taking over as CEO of FremantleMedia North America, the company that produces Fox’s smash hit, American Idol.

He will be based in Los Angeles and report to Catherine Mackay, the company’s regional CEO of USA, Australasia and Asia.

Gutteridge previously was group creative director of The Television Corporation in the U.K., which produces reality shows Paradise Hotel and Forever Eden for Fox. He also was founder and CEO of UK production company Mentorn, which The Television Corporation acquired in 2000.

Besides American Idol, FremantleMedia produces game shows CBS’s The Price is Right, syndication’s Family Feud and cable game shows Date Patrol, Beat the Clock and Whammy. Fremantle also has The Swan coming up on Fox, a beauty pageant of contestants who have undergone extreme makeovers.

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.