Media Council Breakfast

Jennifer Salke, President, NBC Entertainment

Jun 13, 2013
8:15 – 9:30 AM
Los Angeles

This event was streamed live with our partners at FORA.tv.








Jennifer Salke, President, NBC Entertainment

Jennifer Salke was named president of NBC Entertainment in July 2011. She reports to Robert Greenblatt, chairman, NBC Entertainment. Salke is responsible for NBC's primetime and daytime programming, which includes all drama and comedy development, current programming, and casting for the network.  As a result of Salke’s efforts, NBC enters mid-season as the #1 network among adults 18-49 (up from #4 one year earlier).  She also has oversight of scripted series for Universal Television. Prior to joining NBC Entertainment, Salke served as executive vice president of creative affairs at Twentieth Century Fox Television, a post she held since 2006. During her tenure with Twentieth Century Fox, the studio enjoyed an incredible run, highlighted by her development and championing of the hit series "Glee" and "Modern Family" in one season. In 2002, Salke joined Twentieth Century Fox as senior vice president of drama development, where she was instrumental in the creation of several hits, including the long-running "Bones" and "Prison Break." She began her career at Aaron Spelling Productions in the early 1990s, where she first worked with Greenblatt (who was then at Fox) on such seminal series as the original "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Melrose Place," among the many other series Spelling produced at that time. After nearly a decade at Spelling, she was named head of drama development at Sony Pictures Television in 2001, a short-lived stint that ended prematurely when Sony temporarily shut down the studio and re-configured operations. Salke and her husband Bert, who is president of Fox21, reside in Los Angeles and have three children: 12-year-old twins Kate and Georgia, and 13-year-old Henry. Salke and her son Henry were recently honored by Operation Smile with the non-profit organization's Founders Circle Award for their efforts to help children and young adults born with facial deformities such as cleft lips and palates. Henry was born with a cleft lip and the two have spearheaded efforts to help raise funding for Operation Smile. Salke is the founder of “The Smile Event,” a fundraiser for Operation Smile in Park City, Utah, which she cohosts with Billy Bush (“Access Hollywood”). In April 2012, Salke received the 2012 Gil Nickel Humanitarian Award from The Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Foundation. Salke also sits on the Los Angeles host committee for Girls Inc., and in 2009, was honored by the national charity for her work to help young women in Hollywood.

Cynthia Littleton, Editor-in-Chief, Television, Variety (Moderator)
Cynthia Littleton is editor-in-chief of television for Variety. She has covered the television beat for the past 20 years. She began her career at United Press International, followed by stints at Broadcasting & Cable magazine, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, where she rose to editor before re-joining Variety in 2007. Littleton is the author of TV on Strike: Why Hollywood Went to War Over the Internet (Syracuse University Press, 2013), the definitive account of the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike and the impact of the disruptive digital advancements that fueled the labor strife. She is the coauthor with Susanne Daniels of Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of the WB Network and UPN (HarperCollins, 2007).


This event is exclusive to Media Council members and other invited guests. To find out if you're eligible to join the Media Council, contact Stephanie Kousoulas at 212-621-6732 or mediacouncil@paleycenter.org.

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