Ghen Maynard is a television producer and Senior Executive Vice President, Alternative Programming, at

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

Studios. Maynard played a key role in the introduction of European reality shows to the American television market.

Early career

In 1988, Maynard received a degree in psychology from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and pursued a career in publishing at

Houghton Mifflin Company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Boston Financ ...

. It was as a post-production coordinator at

ABC Productions Walt Disney Television, formerly American Broadcasting Companies, Capital Cities/ABC and Disney-ABC Television Group has formed a number of production companies over the years. ABC Film Syndication, or ABC Films, was ABC's syndication distributio ...

that Maynard began in television. Maynard joined CBS's drama department as an assistant in 1995, then manager in 1997, helping to develop such series as

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', also referred to as ''CSI'' and ''CSI: Las Vegas'', is an American procedural forensics crime drama television series that ran on CBS from October 6, 2000, to September 27, 2015, spanning 15 seasons. This wa ...

Reality TV

Maynard's championing of the reality series

Survivor Survivor(s) may refer to: Actual survivors * *Last survivors of historical events Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Survivors, characters in the 1997 ''KKnD'' video-game series * ''The Survivors'', or the ''New Survivors Found ...

led to his promotion to head of CBS's nascent alternative programming department, where he is credited with developing

The Amazing Race ''The Amazing Race'' is an adventure reality game show franchise in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. The ''Race'' is split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselves in forei ...

, the US version of

Big Brother Big Brother may refer to: * Big Brother (''Nineteen Eighty-Four''), a character from George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' ** Authoritarian personality, any omnipresent figure representing oppressive control ** Big Brother Awards, a sat ...

and

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which prod ...

America's Next Top Model ''America's Next Top Model'' (abbreviated ''ANTM'' and ''Top Model'') is an American reality television series and interactive competition in which a number of aspiring models compete for the title of "America's Next Top Model" and a chance to b ...

. Maynard ultimately rose to the level of Senior Vice President, Alternative Programming & Creative Strategies at CBS before leaving for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

in 2004 to become head of development for scripted programming. After two years as Executive Vice President, Primetime Development, NBC Entertainment, Maynard returned to CBS to take oversight of the alternative programming and new media content departments for CBS, as well as alternative programming for

the CW Television Network ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

and CBS Paramount Network Television, CBS Corporation's television production studio. But after shows such as

Greatest American Dog ''Greatest American Dog'' was an United States of America, American reality television show on CBS. It debuted on July 10, 2008 and was hosted by Jarod Miller with judges Victoria Stilwell, Allan Reznik, and Wendy Diamond. The winner was given the ...

, Armed & Famous,

Secret Talents of the Stars ''Secret Talents of the Stars'' is an American interactive reality game show where celebrities competed against each other in a tournament-like format in areas that differed from their normal professions, like singing, dancing, and acrobatics. V ...

failed to garner ratings, Maynard was let out of his CBS contract 10 months early in 2008.CBS Reality Boss Ghen Maynard Stepping Down
/ref> Soon after, CW's senior vice president of alternative programming Jennifer Bresnan took on the role of CBS's senior vice president of alternative programming.

After CBS

In August 2011, Maynard placed 54th in the WPT ''Legends of Poker'' event. He cashed out with $700.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maynard, Ghen Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Harvard University alumni American television executives