Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Mary Beth Cunin, CMT‘s SVP of Programming Strategy, is leaving the network at the end of the year. Originally based in CMT’s Nashville headquarters and reporting directly to Brian Philips, President, CMT, Cunin oversees program scheduling, promotion scheduling, acquisitions and digital content strategy for the network. Cunin relocated to Los Angeles in August. CMT is expected to name a replacement, to be based in Nashville, in the new year. During her nine-year tenure at CMT, Cunin acquired off-network shows Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Trading Spouses and negotiated a deal with Twentieth Century Fox to bring original episodes of Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? to the channel simultaneously with broadcast syndication. On the original programming front, Cunin’s highest-profile initiative was the 2011 launch of a CMT original movie division to produce TV movies for the network. It has since been shelved.

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