The man who brought "Spartacus" and "Party Down" to Starz is being pushed out by the man who brought "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City" to HBO.
Starz programming chief Bill Hamm is leaving the pay cable network, an industry insider with knowledge of the situation confirmed to TheWrap. His exit is the direct result of former HBO leader Chris Albrecht taking over Starz several months ago.
With Albrecht now in place, Hamm — despite his good track record the past three years — sort of became redundant. After all, Albrecht has decades of experiencing luring top talent to TV and helping shape creative projects.
What's more, with Albrecht in place, Starz probably doesn't need somebody else to beat the bushes scaring up new projects for the network.
Albrecht will still need an executive to actually make his talent deals become TV pilots and series. That's why he's hired longtime pal Carmi Zlotnik to serve as the chief operations person at Starz, heading up production of shows.
Zlotnik spent 20 years at HBO working in new media, operations and business development. He then followed Albrecht over to IMG.
Also, John Penney has been named executive VP of strategy and business development, reporting to Albrecht. Before working with Albrecht at Foresee Entertainment as president and head of corporate development, Penney was head of strategy for IMG Global Media and senior VP of digital initiatives at HBO.
News of the Starz shakeup was first reported by Deadline.com.
