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EXCLUSIVE: Suzanne Patmore-Gibbs, EVP scripted creative for the ABC Entertainment Group, is leaving the company. The decision was made by ABC Entertainment Group president Paul Lee, who is eliminating the position as part of his effort to be more closely connected to the creative process. It mirrors the setup on the unscripted side where the co-heads of ABC’s alternative department John Saade and Vicki Dummer report directly to Lee.
Since 2007, Patmore-Gibbs had overseen ABC’s scripted operations (development and current) as well as the network’s longform division. The ABC’s comedy and drama departments headed by Samie Kim Falvey and Channing Dungey, respectively, will now report to Lee the way the alternative group does.
The move is similar to the recent restructuring at Fox where the EVP programming position held by Matt Cherniss is being eliminated following his pending departure, with the comedy and drama department heads reporting to entertainment president Kevin Reilly.
Patmore-Gibbs has been at Disney-ABC since 2000 when she joined Touchstone TV as VP drama series. She then served as SVP drama for the studio before heading the drama development department at ABC for 3 years and getting elevated to EVP.
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Good luck to Suzanne. She’ll land somewhere great.
And Paul Lee is a creative type of executive which bodes well for showrunners.
And all the writers who have pilots and shows at ABC rejoiced!
What the hell took so long?
Suzanne is nice but hid the fact she was all over the place in terms of intellect. She was terrified of McPherson and learned some very bad behavior.
I felt like she was a some what smart kid trying to manipulate the workplace so the dad (McPherson) would yell or hurt her. It was all about second guessing with her.
Her notes reflected a need for control and not an understanding of story. Everyone should be fired there as they’re all so damaged and desperate to please from the McPherson years. McPherson picked an easy group to manipulate without a lot of self esteem.
The shows on ABC all sit in the exact same place emotionally and story wise except for Modern Family. Lots of similar chatting, need for sex and fake drama to keep people from having sex until they decide they want to have sex with someone else.
This seems to be the plot of EVERY ABC show.
Even the actors looks alike on ABC. Come to think of ABC has been becoming more and more like CBS. Except on CBS no one wants sex. They just want to find another dead body.
If Paul Lee was smart he’d scrap the lot of them.
Hysterical surpassed only by dead accuracy
Suzanne Patmore-Gibbs is First Class. No one like her. ABC’s loss…
What idiots (ABC)!
That’s like the Lakers getting rid of Kobe today.
Dumbest. Comment. Ever.
She was a great catch for ABC. She is the only one who even talked to the press regarding ABC development, Lee should of let her stay within some in the company.
Suzanne is one of the most talented development execs in the business, and she also happens to be incredibly friendly and genuine. This is ABC’s loss and will be the gain of her next employer.
About damn time! Being a terrible at your job but great at hiding your boss’ secrets only keeps you employed when your boss is Steve McPherson. Best move Paul Lee has made yet!
Perhaps Bob Greenblatt at NBC could use her as a replacement for Angela Bromstad.
Bob has someone in mind for that position. Not a great choice, she is all talk but wonder if he knew he had a shot at getting Suzane back then would he even look at his choice.
Seriously about time. Awful overbearing executive who noted everything to death. Characters who don’t sound like human beings and just spout exposition? Thank Suzanne for that. Good riddance!
The worst thing a network can do is to have executives “more closely connected to the creative process”. Ask any show runner.
The network suits have hijacked the “creative process”, which is why nobody is watching network TV anymore.
The networks executives are even getting involved in deciding what type camera a cinematographer is going to use. Yes, I realize this is being done to destroy the Screen Actors Guild, which is another dumb move. Now, instead of pro actors earning decent wages, you’ll have armatures working worse and worse contract, because career actors won’t be able to survive in the industry anymore.
Yeah, true mostly. Except look at Bob Greenblatt at Showtime and Chris Albrecht at HBO. They were heavily involved with the creative decisions with all of their shows and the shows were great because of their involvement. Look at what happened to HBO after Chris Albrecht left.
yeah, look at what happened at HBO. they seem to be doing terribly, winning all those awards.
Haven’t been winning that many awards in series the last 5 years, just movies and mini-series… in part because they’re the only place that does ‘em anymore… unless you count Hallmark Channel…
Boardwalk Empire is going to dominate at the Emmys.
Game of Thrones will also dominate at the Emmys.
Emmy voters aren’t crazy about Boardwalk Empire.
Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Nurse Jackie, The Good Wife are more their speed. No one seems to “get” the show.
Season one took a shift in the second half that was ugly.
The story was about ABC. I thought it would go without saying that I was talking about “Broadcast Networks”, CBS,NBC,ABC,Fox,CW.
Except for recently FX, Cable and Pay Cable TV are subject to a lot less “network notes” and are allowed more creative freedom from network executives. For instance, the FX network brass now picks the method of capture, i.e digital cameras, not the cinematographer.
She is a great person and a hard worker. I used to intern for her when she was at Chuck Gordon’s company and she was courteous, professional and very friendly. Good luck to her, I have no doubt she will head up something great somewhere.
One of the good ones. Always intelligent notes, and open to all kinds of ideas.
I would bring her projects anytime. She should set up shop as a producer.
As someone who had the pleasure of working with Suzanne when she was first starting her executive career, it has been amazing to watch her advancement to head of creative at a network. She was then exclusively a feature exec and did an extraordinary job for us. Her transition into television and subsequent rise up the ranks, while maintaining her personal integrity and grace, has also been a pleasure to observe. She is articulate, a great and voracious reader, an executive who always knew the difference between art and commerce, and the small world where they rarely but sometimes cross over. I am very proud to have known her then and now. She will continue to do great in whatever she pursues.
A very nice person who was always available. A perfect sense of decorum for a network executive who wants to get along and not cause waves. But therein lays her shortcomings too. Can’t say there was one show that was hers; that she championed and put herself on the line for. Yet maybe it wasn’t allowed in the culuture of McPherson and therefore she was smarting than us all but haning in there. I wish her good luck.
She was terrified of McPherson, as they all were. And spent 90% of her time second guessing what he wanted. It will be better for her health in general to leave ABC at this point. This last decade has probably taken years off her life. And anything that removes another layer of second-guessing at this pathetic network can only be a good thing.
Really enjoyed working with her at Zwick-Herskovitz. Good ideas. Hope someone hires her soon.
Suzanne is one of the best, smartest, nicest and classiest execs in the industry.
She will land on her feet and soon.
Suzanne was as smart and creative as hell…but a crappy manager. Was the worst job for her. She’ll be a terrific producer.
I think you mean Mark Gordon…
Chuck. Daybreak.
Suzanne is one of the hardest workers I know. She’s paid her dues and her experience shows in every successful project she has headed. ABC will be worse off for letting her go… but some other company out there will be very lucky to get her. Best of luck, my friend!
Goodbye, good riddance, long time coming.
How did Modern Family get on ABC since McPherson was hated by everyone so much and didn’t support the creatives?
McPherson was a fan of Modern Family from the pitch, to the outline, to the pilot script and the produced pilot. It was a rare instance of no one having to talk him into greenlighting a show that eventually worked on his network.
Was a pleasant enough person, but played favorites among the executives, and not generally in a merit-based way. She also had an unfortunate, infamous habit of not returning phonecalls. I could see her blossoming and doing great in a producing situation, or working on the studio side.