Mike Darnell Signs Overall Deal at Netflix
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- Mike Darnell signed an exclusive, multi-year overall deal with Netflix to provide strategic creative guidance across the unscripted slate and shape new ideas across the portfolio.
- Brandon Riegg, Netflix's nonfiction series & sports VP, was instrumental in recruiting Darnell and will work closely with him at the streamer.
- Darnell left Warner Bros. Television Group in 2023 after a decade following a restructuring that would have altered his role; at Warner Bros. he doubled the studio's unscripted output and oversaw hundreds of series.
- Under Darnell, Warner Bros. oversaw NBC's "The Voice," ABC's "The Bachelor," "The Bachelorette" and "Bachelor in Paradise," and launched "The Jennifer Hudson Show" in first-run syndication.
- Darnell previously built his reputation at Fox over an 18-year run, shepherding hits including "American Idol," "Temptation Island," "Joe Millionaire" and animated series "Family Guy" and "Futurama."
- Darnell's Netflix appointment comes after Jeff Gaspin exited his role as Netflix's VP of unscripted series in July after a little more than two years.
Why it matters: Netflix moved quickly to fill its unscripted leadership vacuum following Jeff Gaspin's July exit, landing a producer who spent 28 years building reality franchises at Fox and Warner Bros. — including "American Idol," "The Voice" and "The Bachelor" — giving the streamer a heavyweight operator rather than an internal promotion.
