Fremantle promoted Kevin Woodward to Production EVP for the US

Fremantle has promoted Kevin Woodward to Executive Vice President Of Production, overseeing all physical production for the company’s U.S. unscripted studio, including pre-production, budgeting, production and post-production for development projects and active productions. This will include oversight of “Family Feud,” “American Idol,” and “America’s Got Talent,” as well as Fremantle’s Haven Studios operations, which permanently houses “Let’s Make A Deal” and “The Price Is Right.”

Woodward, who will continue to report to Fremantle North America COO Suzanne Lopez, first joined the company in 2014 and most recently served as senior vice president of production. Prior to Fremantle, he worked as a freelance production accountant across a variety of Fremantle unscripted shows and a slew of shorter-run projects. “Kevin has been instrumental in the success of our growing day-to-day production needs. I know that with his keen understanding of our unscripted series and valuable relationships with EICs, showrunners and partners, he will continue to innovate and expand our production capabilities and solutions across our wide slate of unscripted projects. In addition, having Ryan expand his expertise to Fremantle shows will bring our post production workflow and efficiency to the peak of excellence.” Lopez said.

Before joining Fremantle, Wooward served as a freelance production accountant on Fremantle unscripted shows and shorter-run projects. “I am excited about the continued success of the company as we produce audience-beloved iconic shows like ‘The Price Is Right’ and ‘Family Feud’ and add new projects to our robust unscripted slate,’” Woodward said. “I have always viewed Fremantle as the standard in the unscripted industry, as both a creator and producer, and it’s an honor to continue my journey as part of such a stellar team.”

Meanwhile, Fremantle has also moved Ryan Abbott, the senior VP of post-production, operations, and music for Original Productions, into “an expanded post-production and supervisory music role on Fremantle productions.” He also continues overseeing operations for Max Post. Abbott, who first joined Original Prods in 2017 (and reports to Original Prods. prexy Jeff Hasler), has worked on “Deadliest Catch,” “Jay Leno’s Garage,” and other projects. He previously was head of postproduction for 495 Productions.