Ghen Maynard is a television producer and Senior Executive Vice President, Alternative Programming, at

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

Studios. Maynard played a key role in the introduction of European reality shows to the American television market.

Early career

In 1988, Maynard received a degree in psychology from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and pursued a career in publishing at

Houghton Mifflin Company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company ( ; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, and reference works. The company is based in the Boston Financial District. It was formerly known as the Houghto ...

. It was as a post-production coordinator at ABC Productions that Maynard began in television. Maynard joined CBS's drama department as an assistant in 1995, then manager in 1997, helping to develop such series as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Reality TV

Maynard's championing of the reality series

Survivor Survivor(s) may refer to: * one who survives Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Survivors, characters in the 1997 KKnD series#Armies, ''KKnD'' video-game series * ''The Survivors'', or the ''New Survivors Foundation'', a fictional ...

led to his promotion to head of CBS's nascent alternative programming department, where he is credited with developing

The Amazing Race ''The Amazing Race'' is an adventure reality competition franchise in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. ''The Amazing Race'' is split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselv ...

, the US version of Big Brother and

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...

America's Next Top Model ''America's Next Top Model'' (abbreviated ''ANTM'' and ''Top Model'') is an American reality television series and interactive competition in which a number of aspiring models compete for the title of "America's Next Top Model" and a chance to b ...

. Maynard ultimately rose to the level of Senior Vice President, Alternative Programming & Creative Strategies at CBS before leaving for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

in 2004 to become head of development for scripted programming. After two years as Executive Vice President, Primetime Development, NBC Entertainment, Maynard returned to CBS to take oversight of the alternative programming and new media content departments for CBS, as well as alternative programming for

the CW Television Network The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the first ...

and CBS Paramount Network Television, CBS Corporation's television production studio. But after shows such as

Greatest American Dog ''Greatest American Dog'' is an American reality television series on CBS. It debuted on July 10, 2008 and was hosted by Jarod Miller with judges Victoria Stilwell, Allan Reznik, and Wendy Diamond. The winner was given the title of "Greatest ...

, Armed & Famous, Secret Talents of the Stars failed to garner ratings, Maynard was let out of his CBS contract 10 months early in 2008.CBS Reality Boss Ghen Maynard Stepping Down
/ref> Soon after, CW's senior vice president of alternative programming Jennifer Bresnan took on the role of CBS's senior vice president of alternative programming.

After CBS

In August 2011, Maynard placed 54th in the WPT ''Legends of Poker'' event. He cashed out with $700.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maynard, Ghen Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Harvard University alumni American television executives