Kevin Reilly (executive)
Kevin Reilly (executive)
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Kevin Reilly (executive)

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Kevin Reilly (executive)

Kevin Reilly (born 1962) is an American media executive who served as the Chief Content Officer of HBO Max and the president of TNT, TBS, and truTV. In addition to his position at WarnerMedia, Reilly has also held executive positions at FX, NBC, and Fox, and has championed successful programs such as The Sopranos, Empire, The Office, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, The Shield, ER, Law & Order and Glee, among others.

Reilly is a Long Island native who was born in Manhasset, New York and grew up in Port Washington. He is also a graduate of Chaminade High School in Mineola. Reilly attended Cornell University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in communications arts in 1984. While at Cornell, Reilly was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

Reilly began his career as a freelance production assistant in New York City where he worked on over 150 commercials and music videos. To pursue a career in television, he took a road trip to Los Angeles, initially earning a position as a publicist with Universal Pictures and later hired by Brandon Tartikoff as a manager of creative affairs at NBC in 1988.

In his early years at NBC he developed Saved by the Bell. He later supervised Law & Order in its first season and developed the pilot episode for ER while serving as vice president of drama development from 1992 to 1994.

In 1994, Reilly left his role at NBC to become president of television at Brillstein-Grey Entertainment. While there, Reilly was responsible for shepherding some of television's top shows, such as NBC's Just Shoot Me and NewsRadio, and The WB's The Steve Harvey Show, and the pilot for HBO's The Sopranos. He resigned from the position in 2000.

In 2000, Reilly joined FX as president of entertainment. While at FX, he helped the new network become a profitable, creative business. While there he also transitioned the network's programming from syndicated reruns to original programming including The Shield, Nip/Tuck, and Rescue Me. Within a year of his arrival, FX made cable history with its seminal series, The Shield broke cable ratings records when it premiered and received both a Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Series and an Emmy Award for lead actor Michael Chiklis in 2002. Reilly also championed Lucky, the first television project from the Cullen brothers.

In June 2003, Reilly was named the president of primetime development at NBC. In May 2004, he was promoted to president of the network's entire entertainment division, which included primetime, daytime, and late night programming. Reilly's second tenure at the network was marked by volatility largely due to the fact that major properties like The West Wing, Friends, Frasier, and Will & Grace came to a conclusion.

Despite NBC's poor performance, Reilly oversaw the development of some of the network's more prominent shows that helped to define the network in that decade. His vocal support of The Office helped it survive its low-rated first season. He also helped get My Name Is Earl on the air despite objections from other NBC Universal executives. Reilly has been credited with developing other shows such as Heroes, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Deal or No Deal, America's Got Talent, and others.

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