McConaughey, Witherspoon Debut ‘Mud’: Did Fest … 
Will Smith’s ‘MIB3′ Beats … 
Cannes Podcast: Pete Hammond On ‘Lawless’, … 
Over-Achievers Of This Year’s Upfront 
Aussie Pay-TV Shakeup Impacts Hollywood 
USA: ‘Rebounding’ & ‘Modern … 
Interview: Philip Kaufman At Cannes With ‘Hemingway … 
R.I.P. Television Mogul Lee Rich 
Cannes Biz Shines Despite Wind & Rain 
Full 2011-2012 TV Season Series Rankings 
2011-12 Season Network Rankings: Fox Still On Top But Down, … 
HLN Set To Air Daytime Emmy Awards 
Grant Bowler Cast As Richard Burton Opposite Lindsay Lohan … 
UPDATE: Dish Network And Broadcasters Ask Courts To Decide … 
Cannes Surprise Screening: Change Of Plans On Juan Antonio … 
Kevin Hart In Talks To Join Kevin James In ‘Valet … 
Anthony Hopkins Up For ‘Red 2′ Villain; Can … 
Cannes Conflicted Over ‘The Paperboy’ As … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘American Idol’ Posts … 
Ghost Of 2004 Hovers Over L.A. Screenings As Int’l … 
On The Road To Awards Season? Kerouac Book Finally Makes It … 
UPDATE: I can confirm that 23-year-old Eric Kuhn is joining UTA’s digital media department where I’m told he will specialize in social media strategies for the agency’s talent and corporate clients. 
This is one of the agency world’s early moves to bring in an agent focusing specifically on social media and outlets such as Twitter, Foursquare, and Facebook. Kuhn was CNN’s Audience Interaction Producer, where he oversaw social media for CNN’s U.S. programming and worked on the network’s television/web integration.
Kuhn oversaw CNN’s more than 250 Twitter accounts, and I’m told he was responsible for helping predict election results by looking at voter sentiment on Twitter (and now we know who to blame for all that on-air pablum by the newscasters and pundits during election night). Prior to CNN he helped manage social media for both the NBA and the CBS Evening News. I’m told Kuhn will be relocating from DC to LA at the beginning of the year.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ...
Wait a minute, wait a minute…
I’m trying to wrap my head around this. With this guy’s qualifications, I’m starting to wonder why UTA didn’t ask ME to take the job. (Oh, wait. That’s right. My mom and dad are just regular people, not corporate hotshots!)
I graduated from a top 20 school — from what I found, this kid went to Hamilton, which, to my knowledge is a rinky-dink hippy ‘liberal arts’ school in the middle of nowhere — I work for a major news corporation in Los Angeles doing (gasp!) social media and web work, I know more about Twitter/Foursquare/Facebook marketing than any professional I know and I’m only 22.
My point? This kid is nothing special. If I, and many of my peers, have nearly the same qualifications(if not better, IMHO), there is some family helping going on. Not cool. Crap like this is why I gave up working in the entertainment business. Flash in the pan, this one.
if your idea of top-20 vocabulary is ‘rinky-dink,’ then i’d take my chances on a top-20 liberal arts school over you.
top 20… no way!! you should definitely get a masters since you clearly love bragging about your education.
Psh – Eric? Really? Didn’t do ANYTHING. Seriously, otherwise Anderson Cooper would already have 1 million twitter followers.
Every corporate client UTA has any connection to will have a digital media and creative agency of record that has 10x the strategists. This guy would be entry level on Madison Ave.
UTA last gasps huh. Anyone seen CNN’s ratings as of late. 23 year old WUNDERKIND going to save the 3rd place agency? Pretty sad…
This is a joke right? Lamo.
oh puh-leese. George Ruiz? “head of a one man department” is more like it. LMFAO. And this guy? 23 years old? All such dribble coming from these agencies. These departments don’t get the time of day from the responsible agents and smart managers know to not bother with these additional service departments.. so why even bother?
UTA Online, part 2!!!!
You mean the UTA Online that has several dozen clients they identified working consistently in film and TV, and has several packages for TV shows that made it to air, and which has a bunch of retainer clients? Just want to make sure we’re talking about the same thing.
I think they are talking about 60 Frames.
Quite a career for the 23 year old. He must have started working at the age of 12! Sheesh, UTA. Is any news really news?
show me a dollar any of these new media people earn and i will give you 5
Can’t wait for the next post that wonders why Twitter-buzz for sth was sooo great but then it bombed anyway. It’s called to buy your own B.S. Huge waste of money.
Sure, some personal clients who lack any common sense are in desperate need of some guidance re: how to present themselves… Which in turn takes the last bit of fun out of Twitter & co. Hope they post using a mobile device…
Hollywood is aging. Bring in the millennials.
and how is he going to make commission on any of this? how will this benefit clients? where’s the money in this? 23 is too young. this only sounds like an experiment.
The revolving door of UTA Digital Agents continues…
Every few months, an agent leaves or gets fired, another hire is made, & UTA modifies his/her job description to focus on the latest web trend.
Zuckerberg lives in Palo Alto. UTA lives in Los Angeles. Very different worlds with very different business models. Ask Twitter for your 10% commission. See how long that conversation lasts.
George Ruiz is Twittering for ICM clients? Sad but not surprising.
It’s likely that UTA can make extra money off ads sold on Twitter and knows most of its clients won’t Twitter enough to make it work.
i think you mean ‘tweet.’
I have pretty good feeling that all the Haters posting here are over 30+ years old and freaked out because their jobs can be doen by either someone in India or a 23 year old now. I worked with Eric – so can vouch for him in actual work meetings. He gets that social media is more than just platforms and accounts. Its about a new way of interacting and feedback looping with your audience. Its about building brands that go from podium to full interaction. Its a smart hire for UTA and the trolls here should actually be happy that some people (UTA) in Hollywood are working at getting and driving the future – not just following.
Is that the same CNN which had headlines this year: CNN’s Primetime Viewership Hits 10 Year Low In August As Ratings Woes Continue.
I could see the social stuff working for comedy clients, but Funny or Die sort of has a head start on this already.
I know Eric quite well and he is an extremely talented, bright, and most importantly, NICE person. All this sniping seems like the jealous rants of unhappy people relegated to the margins of the entertainment industry. Good luck, Eric! Just don’t let Hollywood change you.
Wait, so no experience in Entertainment Industry? No internships, no relationships, and his resume has (1) CNN Internet producer position on it. So UTA just hired a child to run their whole Social Strategy? Ok got it. Congrats to CAA & WME well played sirs well played.
1) i know him and he has way more experience and relationships than most 50 year olds I know
2) he basically pioneered Twitter for the NBA in his sleep
3) what did you do when you were 23?
weinstein is a total loser. he has no idea what he’s doing.
100% agree
I have known Brent for a long time from the buyer side. He is smart, loyal and is a great agent. Certainly doing more than the other agencies in this space.
Every agency has a new media division losing money. Why not uta
As another colleague of Eric’s, I can attest to the fact that he is not only incredibly bright and knowledgable about the field he’s in but also a genuine and earnest guy.
It’s a smart move for UTA to explore this field, and it’s clear that the negative comments here are either from people who are jealous because of his accomplishments at a such a young age or people who simply fail to recognize the impact of social media.
Congrats, Eric.
“When You’re Great.. People Hate” … get back to work and let talented people succeed..
facebook says this kid graduated from hamilton in ’09… that means he has a little over a years job experience. can anybody sign up to be an agent to uta?
It’s not the age thing that’s the issue…the problem is no one cares. You could hire a brown or college tech nerd to do the job but why not get someone with some meaningless connection in hollywood.
I cannot wait till he stands up in his first meeting and gets barked at to bring coffee bean to the board members.
but in the end spending 18K on salary plus HMO benefits is worth the risk.
Geez, lots of disgruntled, waiting to get promoted assistants on the interwebs today. Before you knock a guys resume, why don’t you actually look at it. http://www.linkedin.com/in/erickuhn CNN, NBA, CBS, HuffPo. Seems like a fairly experienced dude, young or not.