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.

[8][9][10] 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.

[17] In May 2004, he was promoted to president of the network's entire entertainment division, which included primetime, daytime, and late night programming.

[24] 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.

[33] Early in his tenure at Fox, Reilly developed and launched the J. J. Abrams thriller Fringe,[13] and Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy spinoff, The Cleveland Show.

[36][37] In 2011, Reilly also championed New Girl, the network's highest-rated fall sitcom debut in 10 years, and the singing competition show, The X Factor.

[54][55] Reilly has also gained notice for modernizing and reinventing the types of series seen on TNT and TBS, introducing dark original dramas at TNT, including Claws[56] and The Alienist, and edgy comedies at TBS, including Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Detour, Wrecked, Angie Tribeca and The Last O.G..[16][55] He also led TBS to experiment with "binge-viewing" by airing all 10 episodes of Angie Tribeca’s first season repeatedly over 25-hours without commercials in January 2016 and again in November 2016 with the network’s newest original series, Search Party, which debuted all 10 episodes of first season during Thanksgiving weekend.

Under Reilly's leadership, in 2017 TBS also introduced new unscripted shows including Snoop Dogg Presents the Joker's Wild and Drop the Mic.

[57][58] At Turner, Reilly made investments in digital and social media content and pushed for multi-platform ratings measurement.

[68] Some of Reilly's programming at Max included Ridley Scott’s Raised by Wolves,[69] Love Life starring Anna Kendrick,[70] the ballroom competition show, Legendary[71] and Justice League: “the Snyder Cut” as a re-conceived multi-part event.

It had expanded his oversight of the company's basic cable networks to include truTV in addition to TBS, TNT, and the direct-to-consumer streaming service (HBO Max).

[80] In 2018, Reilly received the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award from the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE).