Today, Showtime Networks announced that Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning executive Vinnie Malhotra will be joining the network in the newly created role of Senior Vice President, Documentaries, Unscripted and Sports Programming. Malhotra will oversee the development and production of the network's growing slate of original unscripted and documentary programming, as well as all future documentary theatrical releases. Malhotra will work closely with Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Sports and Event Programming, on the network's unscripted and documentary sports programming. The announcement was made by Gary Levine, President of Programming, Showtime Networks Inc. to whom Malhotra will report.
"We are proud that
Showtime has become a competitive player in the documentary world and a creative
HAVEN for award-winning filmmakers," said Levine. "Vinnie is joining our amazing team at an exciting time. We are thrilled to have an executive of his caliber taking our ambitious documentary and docu-series slate to the next level."
Malhotra joins
Showtime as the network continues to expand its ambitious documentary slate. This year for the first time in network history,
Showtime made Academy Award® plays for three documentaries, LISTEN TO ME MARLON, PROPHET'S PREY and
DREAMCATCHER premiering them in theaters nationwide prior to their
Showtime premieres. LISTEN TO ME MARLON has already received four key award nominations: Best Documentary at the Gotham Awards, Best Feature for the IDA Awards, and two nominations at the Cinema Eye Honors for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking and Outstanding Achievement in Editing. Additionally, LISTEN TO ME MARLON has already won for Best Writing (for Stevan Riley) at the IDA Documentary Awards.
Under the SHO: CLOSE UP® banner and
Showtime DOCUMENTARY FILMS banner, the network's films offer an uncensored look at fascinating and iconic personalities including Marlon Brando, Jimi Hendrix, Barney Frank, Dick Cheney, Richard Pryor and Warren Jeffs. The news-making documentary THE SPYMASTERS, premieres on November 28 and features in-depth interviews with all 12 living CIA directors, who have given unprecedented access to the inner-workings of America's most powerful spy agency. The network's sports programming includes the current weekly series
A SEASON WITH NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL, and provocative documentaries profiling some of the world's greatest athletes including Kobe Bryant, Victor Cruz and Allen Iverson. And, last year, the groundbreaking
Showtime documentary event series
YEARS OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY received top honors at the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.
Previously, Malhotra served as senior vice president for development and acquisitions at
CNN Worldwide. He joined
CNN in March 2012, where he was responsible for leading development and co-production opportunities for CNN's platforms. In this role, he created and spearheaded the launch of
CNN Films, a production unit created to produce and acquire documentary films, and to
LEVERAGE distribution opportunities for those films at film festivals and in theaters. Malhotra managed the day-to-day operation of
CNN Films, and worked directly with filmmakers to develop original projects. His efforts have led to successful partnerships with multiple award-winning filmmakers including Steve James and Alex Gibney, as well as the acquisition, co-production, or commission of more than two dozen films for broadcast on
CNN and distribution via its digital platforms. Those films included Blackfish, Our Nixon, Life Itself, Ivory Tower, Dinosaur 13, Whitey: The United States v. James J. Bulger, The Hunting Ground, Fresh Dressed, and STEVE JOBS: The Man in the Machine, among others.
Malhotra also handled the development and production of
CNN original series, including the three time Primetime Emmy award-winning Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown, Morgan Spurlock: Inside Man, This is Life with Lisa Ling, High Profits, Finding Jesus,
SOMEBODY'S GOTTA DO IT with Mike Rowe,
CHICAGOLAND and
DEATH ROW STORIES from
Sundance Productions and Robert Redford,
THE SIXTIES and The Seventies, from Playtone and Tom Hanks, and the upcoming series, Race for the White House with Kevin Spacey. In 2015, Malhotra launched a partnership with
CNN Digital Studios to acquire and stream documentary shorts. The premium short-form films were created by new and emerging filmmakers and acquired at prominent film festivals prior to streaming via the network's digital platforms, including CNN.com and CNNgo.
A former program development executive at
ESPN and
ABC News producer, Malhotra began his career with
ABC News in 1997. There, he worked on several of the news organization's signature programs including
NIGHTLINE and World News Tonight, and served as a producer for Peter Jennings for three years. Malhotra later worked with co-anchors Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff and was part of the convoy in Iraq when Woodruff and a cameraman were hit by an IED in January 2006. He was uninjured. During his 13 years at
ABC News, he covered major global events including the Iraq War and the inauguration of President Barack Obama. From 2007 to 2010, Malhotra was executive producer of
ABC News' weekend news content, including World News Saturday and World News Sunday, and oversaw the weekend editorial content and production for ABCNEWS.com and
ABC News Now, among other
ABC News digital platforms.
In 2010, Malhotra joined
ESPN as vice president and executive producer for content development. In this position, he was responsible for the development of films that include Everything in Between: The Tim Tebow Story, The Color Orange, The Brady 6, and The Marinovich Project. He also developed scripted and non-scripted series for the network, and was part of the development team that created the new
ESPN Quarterback rating "Total QBR" that is now being used in association with all NFL coverage on ESPN.
Malhotra has received numerous industry honors for excellence in journalism including three Primetime Emmy Awards, six News and Documentary Emmy Awards, a Peabody and an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award. Malhotra will be based at
Showtime in Los Angeles.
Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of
CBS Corporation, owns and operates the premium television networks SHOWTIME®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ and FLIX®, and also offers
Showtime ON DEMAND®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ ON DEMAND and FLIX ON DEMAND®, and the network's authentication service
Showtime ANYTIME®.
Showtime Digital Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of SNI, operates the stand-alone streaming service SHOWTIME®.
Showtime is currently available to subscribers via cable, DBS and telco providers, and as a stand-alone streaming service through Apple®, Roku®, Amazon and Google. Consumers can also subscribe to
Showtime via
Hulu and Sony PlayStation® Vue. SNI also manages Smithsonian Networks™, a joint venture between SNI and the Smithsonian Institution, which offers Smithsonian Channel™. SNI markets and distributes sports and entertainment events for exhibition to subscribers on a
Pay-Per-View basis through
Showtime PPV. For more information, go to www.SHO.com.
Photo: Monty Brinton/Showtime Networks
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