Less than a year since its launch, Fusion’s top programmer is calling it quits. Billy Kimball, who was named Chief Programming Officer of the Univision/ABC joint venture in May of last year, is stepping down from the position.
CEO Isaac Lee today announced Kimball’s departure and his replacement: Wade Beckett.
“Under Billy’s leadership we had a successful launch and have premiered a number of shows — from “AMERICA with Jorge Ramos” and “Alicia Menendez Tonight” to “Fusion Live” and “No, You Shut Up,” wrote Lee in an email to staff, in which he thanked Kimball for his work and expressed his “hope to continue working with him on a number of projects in the future.”
There was no mention of the short-lived, yet highly hyped show “DNA,” which was axed in January – less than 3 months after Fusion’s launch, or “The morning show” that was moved to primetime, or that Jorge Ramos’ “América” was downsized from daily to weekly.
Wade Beckett, a showrunner for ESPN’s SportsNation, will take over from Kimball. Over the next few weeks he’ll be working from Los Angeles, where he’s currently based, but will be moving and working full-time in Miami in early October.
Before ESPN, Beckett spent over six years as a Supervising Producer for NBCUniversal’s G4 network and an Executive Producer for X-Play. He also oversaw the network’s yearly live broadcasts of E3 and San Diego’s Comic Con convention as well as a series of biography-based specials.