Fifth Season co-CEO Chris Rice has opted not to renew his contract and will exit the company at the end of the year.
Rice will remain as an advisor to the company and continue working across some Fifth Season projects. He also will produce though a first-look deal with the studio.
“It has been a journey I could never have imagined,” Rice said in a memo to staff. “Having shepherded the continued growth of the business for four years since spinning out of Endeavor, it is time now for me to move on to my next entrepreneurial season.”
Fifth Season’s other co-CEO Graham Taylor will take the helm as the company’s sole CEO.
Prior to his current role at Fifth Season, Rice spent 15 years at Endeavor’s WME, where he worked alongside Taylor.
“We were a small band of producers, sales agents and distribution execs trying to innovate on how film and television could be produced, financed and distributed from inside a talent agency,” Rice said. “We believed early on in a few things that seem obvious today: that there were ways creatives could have more ownership of their rights; that storytelling could come from a more global set of voices; and that the mediums of film and television would start to merge creatively.”
Endeavor, which has since been taken private by Silver Lake, spun out its film and TV production division Endeavor Content in 2022, which would be rebranded to Fifth Season. It would reach a deal with Korea’s CJ ENM that valued the company at around $1 billion and gave CJ an 80% majority stake, while Endeavor retained the remaining 20%.
Fifth Season’s notable credits include Hulu’s “Life & Beth” and “Nine Perfect Strangers”; HBO Max’s “Tokyo Vice” and “Scenes From A Marriage”; Prime Video’s “The Lost Flowers of Alice Heart,” and Apple TV+’s “Surfside Girls,” “Truth be Told,” “Lady of the Lake,” “The Savant,” “Chief of War,” “See” and “Severance.”
The latter’s second season recently became the second-most nominated season of television in 77 years of Emmy history, going on to win eight awards. Fifth Season would receive a total of 36 nominations across six series and films.
“At Fifth Season, we have assembled in you the greatest groups of creatives, innovators, builders, boundary-pushers, passionate storytellers and enablers of great artists and talent. I feel immense pride in every brick laid at this incredible company and deep joy in having been able to walk this path with you and build bonds that I hope will last a lifetime,” Rice added. “I can’t wait to see what’s ahead for Fifth Season with Graham at the helm and the incredible Kasee Calabrese at his side. I have no doubt that they and you will grow the business from strength to strength. “
