Lionsgate Taps Craig Piligian to Lead Alternative TV Division

Lionsgate is launching a new Alternative Television division that will combine eOne with unscripted television leader Pilgrim Media Group, and U.S. and U.K. non-scripted groups Blackfin, Renegade and Daisybeck Studios.

The segment will be led by Pilgrim Media Group’s Craig Piligian, who will serve as managing director, with Pilgrim Media Group president and COO Gretchen Stockdale and CCO and general manager Nicholas Caprio reporting into Piligian. Renegade’s David Garfinkle and Jay Renfroe will serve as senior executives on the management team.

The market-facing development labels of each company will remain intact, with most of the production, post-production and backroom operations integrating to work as one. They will be overseen by creative officers Tom Huffman for Pilgrim, Bob Kusbit for Renegade, Geno McDermott for Blackfin, Matt Pritchard, Matt Walton and Malcolm Gerrie for eOne U.K. and Paul Stead for Daisybeck, with former History Channel leader and Half Yard Productions CEO Dirk Hoogstra joining Lionsgate to lead the eOne U.S. label. Lionsgate Alternative Television will also collaborate with the eOne Canada team, led by Jocelyn Hamilton.

“Our top-tier creative leadership team will supercharge our business, as Lionsgate becomes one of the largest independent unscripted production companies in the world,” Piligian said in a statement.

The move comes after Lionsgate closed its acquisition of eOne for a purchase price of $375 million in cash, subject to certain purchase price adjustments, plus the assumption of production financing loans. The deal adds 6,500 film and television titles to Lionsgate’s library and includes film development rights to Hasbro’s “Monopoly” brand. It also follows The 1619 Project’s winning the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series at the Creative Arts ceremony over the weekend.

The newly formed division’s studios have been responsible for unscripted franchises including “Naked and Afraid,” “Street Outlaws,” “Wicked Tuna,” “The Yorkshire Vet,” “Ex on the Beach,” “Selling Sunset” and “MILF Manor” and limited series such as “Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez” and “Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre.”

“The launch of Lionsgate Alternative Television marks another key milestone in the expansion of our global television footprint,” said Lionsgate Television Group Chairman and Chief Creative Officer Kevin Beggs. “As a major force in the non-scripted programming world, Craig is the perfect executive to take our unscripted operations to the next level.”

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