Nellie Andreeva

With Chernin Entertainment expanding into comedy this past season with its first half-hour series orders for New Girl and the animated Allen Gregory, the company has hired a dedicated high-level comedy executive. Former NBC SVP Jane Wiseman is joining the company as SVP Comedy, reporting to President of Television Katherine Pope. Chernin already has a drama head, Lauren Stein, so Wiseman will be her comedy counterpart. Wiseman recently left NBC, where she served as SVP Comedy Development for the network and Universal Media Studios. This past season, she oversaw the development of such upcoming series as Up All Night starring Christina Applegate and Will Arnett; Whitney, from stand-up comedian Whitney Cummings; and Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea. Wiseman’s departure, which I heard happened before the May exit of NBC and UMS’ EVP Comedy Development Jeff Ingold, is part of the network’s ongoing executive changes under new chief Bob Greenblatt, which include the hire of Tal Rabinowitz as new head of comedy. During her tenure at NBC, Wiseman, who joined the network in 2005 as VP Comedy Development, developed such series as Parks and Recreation and Community while also spending time in the Alternative Department developing reality series. At NBC and UMS, she worked with Pope, who held several top jobs there, most recently president of UMS until her departure at the end of 2008. Before NBC, Wiseman was director of comedy development at Fox, where she was instrumental in the development of Arrested Development and The Simple Life.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.