Tony Vinciquerra | |
---|---|
Born | Anthony Vinciquerra 30 August 1954 Albany, New York, US [1] |
Alma mater | University at Albany |
Occupation(s) | Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment |
Spouse | Toni Knight (m. 2003;div. 2020) |
Children | 3 |
Anthony "Tony" Vinciquerra (born August 30, 1954) is an American film executive who is the current Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment. [2] He was previously president and CEO of Fox Networks Group. [3]
Vinciquerra was born in Albany, New York, and grew up with three sisters in a two-bedroom apartment. [4] He performed various odd jobs in his youth, and began working in radio ad sales in college. [4] He graduated from University at Albany in 1977. [5]
Vinciquerra began his career in television broadcasting ad sales at local stations and later CBS, and was named COO of Hearst-Argyle Television in 1999. [4] [3] He joined Fox in December 2001 as president of the Fox Television Network. [3] In 2002, he was named president and CEO of Fox Networks Group, which included Fox Cable Networks, Fox Broadcasting, Fox Sports, and Fox International Channels, and he was named chairman in 2008. [3] [6] After leaving Fox in 2011, [3] he spent time as an entertainment consultant and advisor at TPG Capital. [7]
In 2009, Vinciquerra was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. [8] He has sat on the boards of directors at Univision, Pandora Media, Motorola Mobility, DirecTV, and Qualcomm. [4] [7]
In May 2017, it was announced that Vinciquerra would be filling the role of CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, left vacant by Michael Lynton after he announced his departure for Snap Inc. Vinciquerra was hired [5] to oversee the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, Sony Pictures Television and worldwide media networks. [9] During his time there, he has increased the amount of collaboration between Sony divisions like the motion picture group and Sony Interactive Entertainment, which resulted in the development of productions like Uncharted (2022), The Last of Us, and Twisted Metal. [10] He is credited with reversing a downward trend of film box office performances and strengthening the television division, [11] leading a “dramatic turnaround” with five consecutive years of increasing profit and record-high operating income for the company. [12]
In his role overseeing Sony Pictures Television, Vinciquerra was involved in the hirings of Mike Richards and Mayim Bialik as co-hosts of the television quiz show Jeopardy! in 2021 after the death of longtime host Alex Trebek. [13] [14] Before any of his episodes aired, Richards stepped down from his position after several insensitive comments made on his podcast emerged. [15] [16] Vinciquerra helped manage the resumed host search, [17] which concluded in July 2022 with deals for Bialik and Ken Jennings as the show's rotating co-hosts. [18]
During the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike, he lobbied for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to de-escalate negotiations and resume talks with the unions. [19] He also advocated for writers' unions to "come to a common ground" with production companies on the use of generative AI in film and television production. [20]
In 2001, Vinciquerra moved to Los Angeles and met his wife, Toni Knight, an advertising executive who now owns her own firm. [21] They have three children together. [4] They divorced in 2020. [22]
Game Show Network (GSN) is an American basic cable channel owned by Sony Pictures Television. The channel's programming is primarily dedicated to game shows, including reruns of acquired game shows, along with new, first-run original and revived game shows. The network has also previously aired reality competition series and televised poker.
Blossom is an American sitcom which aired for five seasons on NBC. It debuted as a pilot preview on July 5, 1990, and premiered as a mid-season replacement on January 3, 1991, and aired until May 22, 1995. Don Reo created the series, which starred Mayim Bialik as Blossom Russo, a teenager living with her father and two elder brothers. It was produced by Reo's Impact Zone Productions and Witt/Thomas Productions in association with Touchstone Television.
Mayim Chaya Bialik is an American actress, game show host, and author. From 1991 to 1995, she played the title character of the NBC sitcom Blossom. From 2010 to 2019, she played neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, for which she was nominated four times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2015 and 2017.
Sony Pictures Television Inc. is an American television production and distribution company. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, California, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainment and a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation.
Kenneth Wayne Jennings III is an American game show host, author, and former game show contestant. He is the highest-earning American game show contestant, having won money on five different game shows, including $4,522,700 on the U.S. game show Jeopardy!. Since 2021, Jennings and Mayim Bialik have alternated as hosts of that show, as well as Celebrity Jeopardy!. In 2023, Jennings received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Game Show for hosting Jeopardy!.
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment through multiple platforms.
Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. was launched on May 6, 1974, by Columbia Pictures as an American television production and distribution studio. It is the second name of the Columbia Pictures television division Screen Gems (SG) and the third name of Pioneer Telefilms. For 26 years, the company was active from 1974 until New Year's Day 2001, when it was folded into Columbia TriStar Television, a merger between Columbia Pictures Television and TriStar Television. A separate entity of CPT continues to exist on paper as an intellectual property holder, and under the moniker CPT Holdings to hold the copyright for the TV show The Young and the Restless, as well as old incarnations from the company's television library such as What's Happening!!
Imagine Entertainment, also known simply as Imagine, is an American film and television production company founded in November 1985 by producer Brian Grazer and director Ron Howard.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television, previously known as MGM/UA Television, is the television studio arm of American media company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer specializing in broadcast syndication and the production and distribution of television shows and miniseries.
Michael Peterson Davies is a United States-based British television game shows producer. He is best known for bringing the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to American television. Since 2014, he has hosted a podcast entitled Men in Blazers alongside journalist Roger Bennett. Since 2021, he has served as the executive producer of the game show Jeopardy! following Mike Richards' departure from the program due to various controversies.
Disney Platform Distribution, Inc. is a business unit within Disney Entertainment that manages all third-party media sales efforts for distribution, affiliate marketing and affiliate-related business operations for all of the company's direct-to-consumer services and linear media networks; content sales agreements for Disney Entertainment and ESPN.
Sony Entertainment, Inc. is the umbrella entertainment division of Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony and managed by its American subsidiary, established in 2012 to oversee the corporation's ventures in film, television and music.
CBS Media Ventures is the television broadcast syndication arm of the CBS Entertainment Group division of Paramount Global founded on September 26, 2006 by CBS Corporation from a merger of CBS Paramount Domestic Television and King World Productions.
Jeopardy! is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, in which contestants are presented with trivia clues in the form of answers and must phrase their responses in the form of a question. The show has experienced a long life in several incarnations over the course of nearly a half-century, spending more than 12 years as a daytime network program and having currently run in syndication for 39 seasons. It has also gained a worldwide following with a multitude of international adaptations.
Michael Richards is an American television producer, game show host, and television personality. He was the executive producer of the American television game shows Let's Make a Deal and The Price Is Right from 2009 to 2019, and of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune from 2020 to 2021.
Jeopardy! is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given general knowledge clues in the form of answers and they must identify the person, place, thing, or idea that the clue describes, phrasing each response in the form of a question.
Harry Friedman is an American television industry executive. He was the executive producer of the syndicated game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune from 1999 to 2020. Initially he shared the title of executive producer with the shows' creator, Merv Griffin, but from Griffin's 2000 retirement until his own 2020 retirement, he served as their sole executive producer.
Jeopardy! National College Championship is a special tournament series of the game show Jeopardy! that aired on ABC from February 8 to 22, 2022.
Jean Trebek is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and blogger.
Celebrity Jeopardy! is an American game show that consists of 13-episode tournaments - each played by 27 celebrities. Their winnings in the tournaments are donated to a charity of their choice.