‘American Idol’ Producer Peter Hurwitz Pushed Out as Core Media CEO (Exclusive)
Peter Hurwitz, the CEO of “American Idol” producer CORE Media Group, is stepping down and transitioning to an advisory role, two insiders familiar with the matter told TheWrap.
Hurwitz is the second former Weinstein Company lawyer in the last week to exit a top role at a prominent company. He was pushed aside to make room for executive chairman Dennis Miller, a former Turner Networks executive, who quietly joined the company in September, the insiders said.
Hurwitz has previously served as general counsel at The Weinstein Company, and one insider said there has been anxiety within CORE about whether he knew anything about Harvey Weinstein’s payouts to women who accused him of sexual assault. But a spokesman for CORE said there was “no inquiry whatsoever” into his work at Weinstein.
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Hurwitz did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for CMG said, “No one at the company ever expressed any concern about Peter’s prior association with The Weinstein Co., and there is no “insider” at Core who could truthfully say such a thing.”
Hurwitz served as general counsel for The Weinstein Company from 2006 to 2009. Former Lionsgate International COO Andrew Kramer departed that company last Thursday. He had served as TWC’s president of business affairs and later general counsel.
ABC, which will air the upcoming “American Idol” revival in March, declined to comment on the matter.
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Shortly after the Weinstein scandal broke in early October, an insider close to the revamped “Idol” told TheWrap of “lots of quiet concern… about what Peter might have done in the name of Weinstein.”
The insider continued: “But a general counsel would and should know all. So the answer that ‘I didn’t do the settlements’ can be misleading. The question being asked is what did he know while in that job and what steps did he take to stop the further victimization of women.”
CORE Media was originally jointly owned by 21st Century Fox and Apollo Global Management. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Summer 2016 and reorganized by late September that year, a process that Hurwitz led. The current owners are Tennenbaum Capital Partners and Crestview Media Investors.
The company eliminated about $385 million in debt with the help of the new lenders.
