Fox Names John Hesling Head of Alternative Entertainment

Fox has named John Hesling its new head of Alternative Entertainment, the broadcast network’s in-house unscripted studio.

Responsible for overseeing the development and production of all unscripted series owned by Fox Entertainment (FAE), as well as programs FAE produces for third-party buyers in the U.S. and abroad, Hesling will be based in Los Angeles. Those titles include “The Masked Singer,” “Next Level Chef,” “I Can See Your Voice,” “Crime Scene Kitchen,” “Alter Ego,” “Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer,” “Domino Masters” and “Name that Tune,” among others.

Hesling will report to Allison Wallach, the recently named president of unscripted programming, who took over for Rob Wade following his promotion to Fox Entertainment CEO.

“I am so excited for John to join FAE and lead the incredible team we have assembled,” Wallach said. “His creative vision and vast experience as both a producer and an executive working on a global scale will be key to our strategy of building FAE as a leading provider of innovative series and formats for Fox and third-party platforms throughout the world.”

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Reporting to Hesling will be Senior Vice President, Current, Spike Van Briesen, who is transitioning over to the studio from FOX Entertainment; Leela Pon, Senior Vice President, Content; and Staci Sarkin, Senior Vice President, Production, all based in Los Angeles.

Most recently, Hesling was president of Maverick TV USA, a position he held from 2018 to 2022. There, he oversaw production of USA Network’s hit series “Chrisley Knows Best” and “Growing Up Chrisley.” Prior to that, he was senior vice president of programming at Warner Bros.’ Shed Media in Los Angeles, overseeing “The Real Housewives of New York City” for Bravo, NBC’s “First Dates” and “Genius Junior,” “Long Lost Family” and “Who Do You Think You Are?” for TLC and Oxygen’s “Criminal Confessions.”

“Getting the chance to work with Allison and team at Fox is an amazing opportunity and I can’t wait to get started,” Hesling said. “FAE has a roster of incredible talent and global ambitions, and that, together with a focus on creating hit shows for the network, is a super-exciting challenge.”

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Update: 2024-08-14

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