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Nancy Tellem
Nancy Tellem
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Nancy Tellem (born December 13, 1952) is an American media executive who is the chief media officer and executive chairwoman of Eko (formerly Interlude), a start-up which has created an online platform.[1] She was formerly the entertainment and digital media president of Microsoft[2] Xbox Entertainment Studios and the president of CBS Network Television Entertainment Group, formerly CBS Entertainment Network and CBS Studios. She is the co-founder of BasBlue, Inc,[3] a nonprofit organization.

Key Information

Career

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Tellem was born to a Jewish family in Danville, California, the daughter of an anesthesiologist mother and orthopedic surgeon father. Her parents were Jewish survivors of the Holocaust.[4][5] Tellem got hooked on TV as a child through fan magazines that the networks used to mail out during the summer to promote new shows.[6] As an undergraduate at the University of California Berkeley, she interned one summer for Congressman Ron Dellums (D-Calif.) on Capitol Hill and met her future husband, Arn Tellem.[7] After earning a JD from the University of California Hastings College of the Law,[8][9] she practiced law as a business litigator for five years in Los Angeles. Among her first jobs was chasing down people who claimed to be heirs to Howard Hughes's estate. Tellem then jumped to entertainment, working initially at Columbia Pictures Television on famed lawyer F. Lee Bailey's short-lived 1982 show Lie Detector. Eventually she would end up working for Merv Griffin Enterprises, including on his Wheel of Fortune show before moving to Lorimar Television, where she was in the business affairs department.[10]

Warner Bros. and CBS Paramount

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When Lorimar merged with Warner Bros. television, Leslie Moonves became head of Warner Bros Television. In 1987, he promoted Tellem to Executive Vice President for Business and Financial Affairs and was part of the team that created the landmark shows Friends and ER. When Moonves became head of CBS Entertainment in 1995, two years later, he appointed Tellem the network's Executive Vice President of Business Affairs and President of CBS Productions, the unit responsible for producing original series for the network.

In 1998, Moonves became the president of CBS, and named Tellem his successor.[11] That year Tellem ascended to the presidency of CBS Network Television Entertainment Group,[12] where she oversaw programming, development, production, business affairs and network operations for the CBS Entertainment Network and CBS-Paramount Studios. She was responsible for deciding which shows appeared on CBS, supervised the prime-time, daytime, late-night and Saturday morning lineup on both CBS and later, The CW Television Network - the merged network of The WB and UPN - including shows like CSI, Survivor, Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens, and Gossip Girl. In 2010, she stepped down as president, and took on a new role as a senior advisor to Moonves.[13]

Tellem was the second woman in television history, after ABC's Jamie Tarses, to hold the top entertainment post at a major broadcast network. In 2003, she was named the third most powerful woman in entertainment by The Hollywood Reporter.[14] From 2006 through 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Tellem 75th, 49th and 32nd, respectively, on its annual list of the 100 Most Powerful Women.[15][16][17] She placed third on Entertainment Weekly's 2008 list of the 25 smartest people in TV for restoring CBS's entire prime-time line-up quickly after the 100-day writers’ strike.[18]

Microsoft

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In June 2012, reports surfaced that Microsoft was looking to hire Tellem to head the software giant's entertainment division, which included the company's Xbox and Xbox Live products.[19] In September 2012, Tellem joined the company as entertainment and digital media president, and set about putting together a team to develop entertainment content that would be available exclusively through the Xbox platform.[20] She left the company when the studio shut down in October 2014.

Eko

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In April 2015, Tellem became executive chairman and chief media officer of Interlude, a technology company and creator of proprietary technology used in interactive storytelling. Interlude is now known as Eko. Tellem is also an investor in the company, and one of its board of directors.[21]

BasBlue

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In 2015, Tellem launched BasBlue, Inc. a nonprofit organization providing access, programming, mentorship and education to underrepresented and under-resourced women and non-binary individuals.[22][23]

Awards and honors

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In 2006, Tellem was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame, in recognition of her contributions to the electronic arts.[24] Two years later she received a National Association of Television Program Executives' Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award, which recognizes television professionals who exhibit extraordinary passion, leadership, independence and vision in the process of creating TV programming.[25]

Personal life

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Tellem is married to former sports agent Arn Tellem, the vice chairman of Palace Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Detroit Pistons.[26] The couple has three sons: Michael, Matthew and Eric.[27]

References

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia
from Grokipedia
Nancy Tellem (born December 13, 1952) is an American media executive renowned for her pioneering leadership in television and digital entertainment, most notably as president of the CBS Network Television Entertainment Group from 1997 to 2012, where she oversaw programming for CBS Entertainment and operations at . Born in , Tellem earned an undergraduate degree from the , and a J.D. from UC Hastings College of the Law, followed by a brief stint as a Capitol Hill intern during college. After graduating, she practiced entertainment law in for four years before transitioning into the industry she had long admired. In the early 1980s, her initial roles included investigating claims from purported heirs to Howard Hughes's estate at the Los Angeles law firm Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp, after which she joined Lorimar Productions as vice president of business affairs. Tellem's ascent in network television accelerated in the ; she served as executive vice president of before moving to in 1992 as senior vice president of program planning and scheduling, contributing to hits like ER and Friends. In 1997, she joined under mentor Leslie Moonves, initially as president of CBS Entertainment, where she greenlit successful series such as Survivor, CSI, and , transforming the network's primetime lineup and boosting its ratings dominance. By 2004, her role expanded to president of the broader CBS Entertainment Group, and she later advised Moonves as a senior executive until 2012, during which time CBS solidified its position as a top broadcast network. Transitioning to digital media, Tellem was appointed president of entertainment and digital media at Microsoft in 2012, leading Xbox Entertainment Studios and producing original content like the Halo series before the division's closure in 2014. She then became chief media officer and executive chairwoman of interactive video startup Interlude (later rebranded as Eko) in 2015, guiding its growth in personalized storytelling and partnering with brands like Bob Dylan for innovative projects. In 2019, she briefly served for six months as executive director in the office of the CEO at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), focusing on strategic initiatives amid the studio's digital transformation. In 2020, she co-founded BasBlue, a nonprofit organization empowering women in Metro Detroit. As of 2025, Tellem serves as executive chairperson and chief media officer at Eko, emphasizing interactive and immersive media experiences. She holds a board position at (since 2023) and served on the board of Rocket Companies from 2020 until June 2025, along with other media-related advisory roles. Married to since 1979, she has three sons and resides in the area, where her husband serves as vice chairman of the Tigers. Throughout her career, Tellem has been recognized for breaking barriers as a female executive in male-dominated fields, earning accolades like inclusion in 's Women in Entertainment Power 100.

Early life and education

Childhood and family

Nancy Tellem was born circa 1953 in . She was raised in an Oakland suburb by parents who were both medical professionals: her mother was an anesthesiologist, and her father was a . Tellem's family was Jewish, with her parents being European Jews who met while attending in , , and escaped Nazi persecution in the late 1930s as persecution intensified; many of their relatives perished in concentration camps during . Her childhood was shaped by this family background, where the Holocaust remained a deeply sensitive and rarely discussed topic, evoking strong emotional responses even in private conversations. Growing up in California's Bay Area during the mid-20th century provided an environment rich in emerging media influences, and Tellem developed an early fascination with television through fan magazines, which sparked her interest in the entertainment industry. There is no record of significant relocations during her formative years before pursuing higher education.

Academic and early professional training

Nancy Tellem earned her undergraduate degree from the . She later obtained a (J.D.) from the University of California Hastings College of the Law in , where she received formal training as a . Her legal education provided a strong foundation in contract law and negotiations, which would prove essential for her future work in the entertainment sector. Following , Tellem began her professional career by entering business affairs roles within the entertainment industry, leveraging her legal expertise to handle contractual and financial matters. Prior to this, during her undergraduate years, she gained early exposure to and government through an internship in , for Oakland congressman in 1974, which honed her skills in advocacy and analysis. These initial steps established the groundwork for her media career, emphasizing and deal-making in a field increasingly shaped by legal and business complexities.

Career

Early roles at Lorimar and Warner Bros.

Nancy Tellem began her entertainment industry career in business affairs at Lorimar Productions in , joining as director of business affairs after prior experience at . In this role, she managed the legal and contractual aspects of television production, including negotiating talent agreements, licensing deals, and financial arrangements for ongoing series and development projects during Lorimar's final independent years. Her responsibilities encompassed ensuring compliance with industry regulations and facilitating smooth deal-making to support the studio's output of popular primetime programming. Following ' acquisition by Warner Bros. in 1989, Tellem transitioned seamlessly into the Warner Bros. Television business affairs department, where she had already been serving since 1987 in a director capacity. She progressed rapidly, becoming executive vice president of business and financial affairs by the mid-1990s under Leslie Moonves, whom she had known from . As the second-highest-ranking executive in the department, Tellem oversaw all business, financial, and legal operations for the studio's television division, handling complex negotiations for production financing, distribution rights, and talent packaging across a slate of network and syndication projects.

Leadership at CBS Entertainment

Nancy Tellem joined CBS in July 1997 as executive vice president of business affairs for Entertainment and executive vice president of , leveraging her prior experience in business affairs at Television. In August 1998, she was promoted to president of Entertainment, succeeding Leslie Moonves, who had moved to a higher role within the network. By May 2004, following the merger of and Paramount, Tellem advanced to president of the newly formed Entertainment Group, overseeing the combined operations of Entertainment and Television. Her role later evolved to president of the Television Entertainment Group, a position she held until transitioning to a senior advisory capacity in 2010, continuing her involvement with the company through 2012. In her leadership positions, Tellem supervised the development, production, and programming for the CBS Television Network, as well as the operations of CBS Studios (formerly CBS Productions). She played a pivotal role in greenlighting and nurturing a portfolio of successful primetime series, including the franchise-launching CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, reality competition Survivor, procedural dramas CSI: Miami, Without a Trace, and NCIS, and sitcoms such as Everybody Loves Raymond and Two and a Half Men. These strategic content decisions emphasized character-driven narratives and genre-blending formats that appealed to broad audiences, solidifying CBS's position in scripted and unscripted television. Tellem's tenure marked significant achievements for , including transforming the network into America's most-watched broadcaster during multiple seasons, with the 2000-2001 season achieving the top ratings in viewers and households for the first time in over a . Under her oversight, expanded its content slate to include innovative programming that drove sustained ratings growth and international syndication success for flagship shows like CSI. As the industry shifted toward digital platforms, Tellem contributed to 's adaptation by focusing on initiatives, including web content development via cbs.com and exploring alternative distribution models to bridge traditional broadcast with emerging online viewing trends.

Microsoft Entertainment Studios

In September 2012, Microsoft hired Nancy Tellem as president of Entertainment & Digital Media, tasking her with leading the newly formed Entertainment Studios to produce original video content exclusively for the platform. Based in , she reported to corporate vice president Phil Spencer and aimed to bridge traditional television production with interactive digital experiences tailored to gamers. Drawing briefly from her CBS leadership, Tellem brought expertise in scripted and unscripted programming to facilitate 's entry into the converging worlds of gaming and entertainment. Under Tellem's oversight, Xbox Entertainment Studios developed projects that integrated video content with the Xbox ecosystem, emphasizing interactivity to enhance user engagement beyond passive viewing. A key example was the live-action digital series Halo: Nightfall, a five-episode production executive produced by Ridley Scott that premiered in 2014 on Xbox Live, serving as a narrative bridge to the video game Halo 5: Guardians and incorporating platform-specific features like on-demand access tied to gaming profiles. Other initiatives included documentaries such as Every Street United, which used Xbox Kinect technology for interactive soccer scouting elements, and plans for hybrid scripted series that allowed viewers to influence story outcomes via console controls. These efforts positioned Xbox as a multifaceted entertainment hub, blending linear storytelling with gaming mechanics to retain users within Microsoft's ecosystem. Tellem's tenure faced significant challenges, including the competitive streaming landscape dominated by and Amazon, which strained resources amid the Xbox One's initial market struggles. In July 2014, as part of a broader company restructuring under new CEO , Microsoft announced the closure of Xbox Entertainment Studios, citing a strategic pivot to core gaming priorities over original video production. Tellem remained briefly to oversee completion of in-production projects like Halo: Nightfall, but departed in October 2014 alongside key executives, marking the end of the studio's operations. Her contributions helped lay foundational strategies for 's media ambitions, influencing later integrations of entertainment content in Xbox services.

Eko and digital media ventures

In April 2015, Nancy Tellem joined Interlude, an startup, as Executive Chairman and Chief Media Officer, bringing her extensive experience in media production to guide the company's expansion into innovative digital formats. Interlude rebranded to Eko in December 2016, shifting focus toward a broader platform for and . Under Tellem's leadership, Eko advanced technologies that enable non-linear narratives, empowering viewers to influence story outcomes through choices and branching paths, thereby revolutionizing traditional consumption. Key initiatives included early partnerships with to develop customizable music videos, where users could select personalized viewing experiences. A landmark collaboration was the 2018 with , forming W*E Interactive Ventures to produce interactive content blending and retail, such as shoppable videos and decision-driven series, with Tellem serving on the venture's board to oversee strategic content development. Further exemplifying this innovation, Eko partnered with Fine Brothers Entertainment in to create "Epic Night," an interactive series presenting viewer decisions every 60-90 seconds, resulting in over 3,000 possible narrative combinations. As of 2025, Tellem remains Executive Chairperson and Chief Media Officer of Eko, directing the company's ongoing strategic initiatives in growth, including enhanced platforms for content distribution and audience engagement across streaming and retail ecosystems.

BasBlue and strategic advisory roles

In 2020, Nancy Tellem co-founded BasBlue, Detroit's first nonprofit dedicated to fostering women's , alongside Natacha Hildebrand. The organization's mission is to advance by delivering resources for personal and professional growth to underrepresented and under-resourced women and non-binary individuals in , emphasizing inclusivity, mentorship, and community building in a historic mansion renovated for this purpose. As co-founder and leader, Tellem oversees operations, including member-exclusive programs such as workshops, seminars, health and wellness sessions, and networking events, alongside public offerings like bimonthly community gatherings and the Trailblazer-in-Residence Scholarship program, which has awarded over 175 scholarships to support emerging leaders. Tellem's move to in 2015, following her husband's professional relocation, directly influenced her commitment to establishing BasBlue as a dedicated space for female empowerment in the region. In 2019, Tellem joined (MGM) as Executive Director in the Office of the CEO, where she contributed to the company's long-term strategic planning, leveraging her extensive media industry experience. In December 2019, Tellem joined the at Nielsen, serving until October 2022, bringing her expertise to advise on media measurement and audience analytics strategies amid evolving digital consumption trends. Tellem served on the board of Rocket Companies from February 2020 to May 2025. Since September 2023, she has been a director at .

Awards and honors

Industry recognitions

Nancy Tellem received the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame induction in 2006, recognizing her significant contributions to the through her leadership in and distribution. In 2008, she was awarded the Legacy Award by the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE), honoring her profound impact on television programming and her role in fostering innovative content during her tenure as president of Television Entertainment Group. Tellem has been featured multiple times on ' annual list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women, reflecting her influence in the media industry tied to her achievements at ; she ranked 75th in 2006, 49th in 2007, and rose to 32nd in 2008. She was also included in The Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment Power 100 list multiple times, ranking #3 in 2003 and #5 in 2006.

Philanthropic and community awards

In 2019, Nancy Tellem and her husband were honored by , a dedicated to fostering and leadership among youth from conflict regions, for their longstanding support in peace-building initiatives, including sponsoring basketball clinics at the organization's summer camp since 2002. Tellem received the 2023 Edward H. McNamara Goodfellow of the Year Award from the Old Newsboys' Goodfellow Fund of , recognizing her and Arn Tellem's contributions to , particularly in providing holiday assistance and support to underprivileged children in the area through the fund's annual campaigns. In recognition of her efforts to advance women's leadership through BasBlue, the nonprofit co-founded by Tellem in as 's first dedicated space for women and nonbinary professionals, she was honored at Wayne State University's 2023 event on Ferry Street, alongside other local leaders promoting gender equity and .

Personal life

Marriage and family

Nancy Tellem has been married to , a prominent and current vice chairman of the , since 1979. Their long-term partnership has been marked by mutual support in their respective careers in and . The couple has three sons: Michael, Matthew (also known as Matty), and . Family life has centered on balancing professional demands with personal commitments, fostering a close-knit . Tellem's family has influenced her professional trajectory through collaborative philanthropic efforts, including significant joint donations to organizations like the Detroit Children's Fund. In recognition of their shared community impact, Arn and Nancy Tellem received the H. McNamara Goodfellow of the Year Award from the Old Newsboys' Goodfellow Fund of in 2023.

Residence and community involvement

In 2015, Nancy Tellem relocated from to the area when her husband, , assumed the role of vice chairman of the . The family settled in Bloomfield Hills, where they have maintained their primary residence since then. Tellem has engaged deeply in Detroit's civic life, supporting local nonprofits focused on youth and . In 2019, she and her husband contributed $100,000 to the Detroit Children's Fund to expand access to high-speed internet for underserved students in . Their philanthropy extends to food insecurity efforts, as evidenced by their inclusion in the 2019 annual report of Forgotten Harvest, a major food rescue organization. In recognition of these and other contributions, the Detroit Goodfellows honored the Tellams with the Edward H. McNamara Goodfellow of the Year Award in 2023 for their impactful work in the community. Tellem's commitment to women's initiatives in Detroit includes backing programs that empower underrepresented entrepreneurs and leaders. In 2025, she and Arn pledged $500,000 to the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy (as part of a $1 million gift to the university), establishing the Nancy and Arn Tellem Fellowship to provide financial support to students in the online program, with a preference for those connected to . Additionally, as part of a diverse investor group led by Pistons owner , Tellem helped secure a WNBA franchise for , set to launch in 2029, promoting and . These efforts complement her work with BasBlue, serving as an extension of her dedication to fostering inclusive opportunities for women in the region.

References

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