Ryan Seacrest Productions has named Rabih Gholam to the post of executive vice president of unscripted television.
In the role, Gholam will manage development and new television business opportunities. He will report to company president Eugene Young.
“Rabih is a prolific producer and creator of content. He has a keen eye for projects with vast commercial appeal. His intelligence, experience and relationships are sure to energize our growing team at RSP,” said Young.
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Gholam most recently served as the executive vice president of alternative programming at 51 Minds, where he headed development and producing TV shows including ABC’s “Whodunnit?,” CBS’ “Same Name” and Fox’s “Somebody Has to Go.”
Upon graduating from NBC’s prestigious Page Program, Gholam worked in late-night TV at CBS’ “Craig Ferguson Show” and Fox’s “Talkshow With Spike Feresten.”
He then moved into reality programs, developing and producing such shows as “The Surreal Life,” “The Mole” and “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and MTV’s iconic “The Hills.”
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In the newly created position, Gholam joins a leadership team that includes EVP of current unscripted programming head Izzie Pick Ashcroft, EVP of production Robert Norris Catto and SVP of development Matt Sims.
RSP is best known for producing the E! series “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and its associated spinoffs, as well as the cable channel’s “Married to Jonas” and “The Wanted Life.” RSP currently produces “Shahs of Sunset” on Bravo,” “Webheads” for Nickelodeon, and “The Speegle Life” for TLC. RSP is also producing a new drama for NBC, “Shades of Blue,” starring Jennifer Lopez. The company also produced the Emmy Award-winning reality series “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.”
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Its beefing up of its executive board arrives with some hits, see above, but also some recent failures. Fox recently pulled RSP-produced “I Wanna Marry Harry” from its schedule due to low ratings. Also, RSP’s first scripted show, the comedy “Mixology,” was canceled by ABC after one low-rated season.