Amazon Studios Global Formats Chief CJ Yu Exits

Peter White and Jesse Whittock
·1 min read

EXCLUSIVE: CJ Yu, who was Head of Unscripted Development, Global Formats at Amazon Studios, has left the company.

It’s not entirely clear why Yu, who was responsible for the international roll out of formats including All Or Nothing and LOL: Last One Laughing, left the company but one source close to the situation said it was over “creative differences”.

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Yu joined Amazon Studios in 2017, initially as a senior creative development and programming executive before becoming Head of Unscripted Development in Latin America and then promoted to the global formats role in 2019.

He previously held role at Mark Burnett Productions, Endemol, TMZ and Talpa Media.

Based in LA, he was responsible for the global development, commissioning and localization of reality and docuseries formats at the company. This included adapting sports franchise All or Nothing in over a dozen markets, and comedy format LOL: Last One Laughing in close to 20 markets including with Trevor Noah hosting in South Africa, Rebel Wilson hosting in Australia and Graham Norton hosting in Ireland with plans for a British remake also in the works.

Other titles include reality series Wild and Free and property format Luxe Listings, which have both traveled globally.

His departure comes at a difficult time for Amazon in unscripted. The company has had success internationally with formats but has struggled to break through in the U.S. on the non-scripted side.

Amazon confirmed Yu’s departure but declined to comment further, while Yu also declined to comment.

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