HBO names new programming chief
The selection of Sue Naegle is latest move in a management overhaul for the premium channel having a rocky year. She helped give HBO its last big hit, "Six Feet Under."
HBO announced this morning that television agent Sue Naegle would become its new programming president after a rocky year for the premium cable television channel. The move comes nine months after a management overhaul and follows last month's departure of the channel's longtime programming chief.
Naegle, 38, was instrumental in helping bring HBO's last big commercial hit, "Six Feet Under," to television. Naegle represented that show's creator, Alan Ball, and packaged the program as a top television agent at United Talent Agency, where she has worked for 16 years, beginning in the mail room. She also put together interesting and slightly offbeat shows for other networks, including ABC's "Men in Trees" and Fox's "The Bernie Mac Show," as well as the upcoming CBS sexcapades drama, "Swingtown," and HBO's series "True Blood."
She will oversee all series programming and specials for the Time Warner Inc. unit.
"We just think it's a perfect fit," her two new bosses, Richard Plepler, HBO co-president, and Michael Lombardo, president of the programming group and West Coast operations, said in a statement. "Sue has great taste, superb relationships in the creative community and an innate sense of what makes a great HBO show."
This is the fourth key agent to leave United Talent Agency in the last week. Naegle will assume her new job later this month. She replaces longtime HBO programming chief Carolyn Strauss, who stepped down last month.
During the last few years, HBO has struggled to maintain its position as the top purveyor of culturally resonant hits after the retirement of such shows as "The Sopranos," "Deadwood" and "Sex and the City." More recent offerings, such as "John From Cincinnati" and "Lucky Louie," did not fare well. Last month, HBO pulled the plug on a highly anticipated series starring Lily Tomlin as a Dallas real estate magnate, "12 Miles of Bad Road," an hourlong dramedy by "Designing Women" creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. The network felt the show wasn't up to HBO standards.
Meg.james@latimes.com
