Endemol Shine North America Taps Christmas Rini As Head Of Unscripted Development, Launches Syndication Unit
Endemol Shine North America continues its restructuring under Sharon Levy, the company’s new President, Unscripted and Scripted Television.
Veteran unscripted development executive Christmas Rini has joined the company as EVP Development, Unscripted Original Series. She will work alongside DJ Nurre, who was recently brought in as EVP, Unscripted Original Series, with Rini overseeing unscripted development and Nurre current unscripted series and pilots and both reporting to Levy.
Additionally, Endemol Shine North America for the first time has launched a dedicated syndication division. It will be run by Michael Weinberg, named EVP Syndication, who also will report to Levy. In other executive moves, Sean Loughlin has been to SVP, Unscripted Development.
Weinberg, who was formerly SVP, Development at Endemol Shine North America, has been involved in the company recent syndicated efforts. He helped develop the studio’s Steve Harvey daytime talk show and has overseen the recent launch of Page Six TV in national syndication, in addition to developing new projects in the first-run syndication space. Weinberg also was responsible for the development of Endemol Shine’s Pitbull’s New Year’s Revolution specials on Fox.
Rini joins Endemol Shine from A. Smith & Company, where she previously served as EVP of Development. It marks a return for Rini as she began her unscripted career at predecessor Endemol working on hit series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition from 2003-2006.
Rini most recently served as EVP President of Development at A. Smith & Company, where she oversaw the creation, development and sale of all of A. Smith’s original nonscripted programming. There she was responsible for the creation of numerous original series including That Awkward Game Show (Spike), The Game of Dating (TV One), Teenage Newlyweds (FYI), and Container Homes (HGTV). During her tenure with she also oversaw the creation and development of I Survived A Japanese Game Show and Crash Course on ABC, as well as HGTV’s Ellen’s Design Challenge.
Loughlin, who has been with Endemol Shine since 2005, is developing original unscripted series/formats for the company and now reports to Rini. In his previous role as VP, Unscripted Development, he was part of the internal team that developed and sold such series as Page Six TV, Pitbull’s New Year’s Revolution, Love in the Wild, 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show and Steve Harvey.
“The first six months of my tenure with Endemol Shine have been busy putting together a killer team, ready to create, execute and share amazing content with audiences across all platforms,” said Levy. “With the addition of Christmas, Michael leading our syndication initiatives and Sean’s promotion, I believe we are now poised to smash it.”
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