Robert Greenblatt is stepping down as Showtime's entertainment president; he will be replaced by former Imagine TV's David Nevins, several individuals familiar with the situation told TheWrap.
The voluntary departure of Greenblatt — which will occur when his two-year contract ends in July — will culminate a highly successful seven-year stretch as the CBS-owned premium cable channel's top programing executive.
During this run, Greenblatt transformed Showtime from a sleepy movie channel to a legitimate original-programming competitor to HBO, developing a string of hits and Emmy-contending fare, and upping Showtime's subscriber base by 45 percent.
Series developed and launched under Greenblatt's launch include "The L-Word," "Weeds," "Dexter," "The Tudors," "Nurse Jackie," "Californication," "United States of Tara" and "Nurse Jackie."
Besides a programming executive background that extends to the early days of the Fox network, Greenblatt is an accomplished producer, respected in the creative community for work that extends into live theater.
According to Variety, which first reported his pending departure, Greenblatt is perhaps ready to get back into producing full time after building a stable original-programming lineup that, at this point, doesn't need a whole lot added to it.
As for Nevins, he also comes with plenty of creative-realm bonafides, having championed such viewer-challenged/critically beloved fare as "Arrested Development" and "Friday Night Lights" while serving in the programming department at NBC and Fox.
Nevins announced his resignation as president of Imagine TV on Thursday. He had been at Imagine for eight years.
Nevins' contract was not being renewed, an individual with knowledge of the situation confirmed to TheWrap. Twentieth Century Fox TV officials were not happy with their relationship with Nevins, the individual said.
Nevins was named president of Imagine Television in July 2002. He has been in charge of television development and production for shows on both broadcast and cable networks.
However, most of the Imagine shows developed through 20th on broadcast and cable right now, including "Friday Night Lights," "Lie to Me," "Parenthood" and the new show scheduled for this fall, "Friends With Benefits," stemmed from ideas generated by Imagine partners Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, according to the executive.
Neither Imagine nor Fox Television could be immediately reached for comment. But an individual at the studio who did not want to be identified told TheWrap there were no hard feelings between Nevins and 20th officials over programming. "We just couldn't come to terms with him on a new deal that was acceptable to both parties," he said.
Prior to joining imagine, Nevins was executive vice president of programming at Fox and senior vice president of primetime series at NBC. He produced the critically-acclaimed series "Friday Night Lights" and "Arrested Development."
Showtime declined to comment.
