Michael H. Darnell (born 1962) is an American television executive and former child actor. He is currently the president of unscripted and alternative television at

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

He spent nearly 19 years at the FOX network as president of alternative entertainment, overseeing the network's reality television division during the genre's rise. In 2017, Preston Beckman, a former FOX executive who writes under the pseudonym The Masked Scheduler, called Darnell "the king of reality TV and one of the more interesting, offbeat characters ever to occupy an executive suite."'

Early life and career

Mike Darnell was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, Pennsylvania, to Eileen and Doyle E. Darnell. His father was a policeman, and Darnell was raised and attended public school in Philly's Northeast section. When he was 10, a talent manager saw him singing at a

Police Athletic League The Police Athletic League (PAL; Police Activities League) is an organization in many American police departments in which members of the police force coach young people, both boys and girls, in sports, and help with homework and other school-rel ...

event and encouraged him to do commercials. When he was 12, his family moved to California, where he eventually appeared in, or voiced-over, some sixty commercials. He also appeared in TV episodes such as '' Sanford and Son'', ''

Welcome Back, Kotter ''Welcome Back, Kotter'' is an American sitcom starring Gabe Kaplan as a high-school teacher in charge of a racially and ethnically diverse remedial education class called the "Sweathogs." Recorded in front of a live studio audience, the seri ...

'' and ''

Kojak ''Kojak'' is an American action crime drama television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theodopolis "Theo" Kojak. Taking the time slot of the popular ''Cannon'' series, ...

''. Later he worked as a bank teller to help pay his way through Cal State-Northridge. He also played piano at a night spot. Soon after graduating, he had an internship at '' Entertainment Tonight'', which he says he "hated", before he started working at Fox's West Coast flagship station

KTTV KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV ou ...

, within their news department. Darnell is married to Carolyn Oberman, a public relations executive who works for the Emmy Awards, and they have a daughter. , he lives in

Calabasas, California Calabasas (from Spanish ''calabazas'' "gourds") is a city in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley, between the foothills of the Santa Monica and Santa Susanna mountains. One of his first that came to broad attention was in 1995, when a producer brought Darnell black-and-white footage that appeared to portray an alien being dissected. As the network feared accusations of propagating a hoax, the show was broadcast with the title '' Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction''; it drew an audience of nearly twelve million viewers and was rebroadcast several more times. At one point, he produced over sixty specials a year for Fox, including: ''

When Animals Attack! ''When Animals Attack!'' is a series of television specials aired by Fox in the United States during the mid- to late-1990s. The specials compiled graphic clips of various animals attacking humans. The series was credited to the network's " alter ...

'', ''

World's Wildest Police Videos ''World's Wildest Police Videos'' (shortened to ''Police Videos'' in Season 4) is an American reality TV series that ran on Fox from 1998 to 2001. In 2012, Spike announced that it had commissioned 13 new episodes with the revival of the origina ...

'', '' Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed,'' and '' Man vs Beast.'' Darnell's projects were known for their often lurid and controversial nature, leading ''The New York Times'' to call him "Fox's point man for perversity" in 2000. Series that Darnell was involved with for included ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

'', ''

Hell’s Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the e ...

'', ''

MasterChef ''MasterChef'' is a competitive cooking show television format created by Franc Roddam, which originated with the UK version in July 1990. The format was revived and updated for the BBC in February 2005 by executive producers Roddam and John ...

'', ''

So You Think You Can Dance ''So You Think You Can Dance'' is a franchise of reality television shows in which contestants compete in dance. The first series of the franchise, created by '' Idols'' producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe, premiered in July 2005 and ha ...

'', ''The X Factor'', ''Kitchen Nightmares'', '' Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?'', ''Temptation Island'', ''The Simple Life'', '' My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé'', ''

Joe Millionaire ''Joe Millionaire'' is an American reality dating show that premiered on Fox in 2003. The first two seasons of the series followed a group of single women, competing for the affection of a bachelor who was falsely billed as being a millionaire ...

'', and the launch of the animated series '' Futurama'' and '' Family Guy''. With more than thirty million viewers at its peak, ''American Idol'' helped FOX rise from the last place network to eight consecutive seasons as the number one network. Darnell oversaw ''American Idol'' from its creation through its twelfth season. Darnell told ''Variety'' that his proudest achievements during his time at FOX included ''American Idol'', the success he had with Gordon Ramsay, and the season finale of ''Joe Millionaire'', which drew about forty million viewers, outranking that year's Academy Awards, and became the network's most-viewed entertainment telecast.

Warner Bros Television

In 2013, Darnell left Fox and began heading up the Unscripted & Alternative division at

where he is responsible for overseeing development and current programming for alternative broadcast series, high-end documentaries, unscripted streaming and cable series, and first-run syndication. In 2017, Darnell and his team oversaw 35 series across 20 different networks, including primetime series such as ''Ellen’s Game of Games'' (NBC), ''The Voice'' (NBC), '' The Bachelor'' franchise (ABC), Mental Samurai (FOX), ''

The Real In continental philosophy, the Real refers to the remainder of reality that cannot be expressed, and which surpasses reasoning. In Lacanianism, it is an "impossible" category because of its opposition to expression and inconceivability. I ...

,'' and ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was pro ...

'', among others. That same year, ''Deadline'' reported that in Darnell's first four years at Warner Bros, the studio had twelve unscripted series airing in primetime, more than any of its rivals. Darnell created and produced talent competition series ''

The World's Best ''The World's Best'' is an American reality talent competition television series. Produced by Mark Burnett and Mike Darnell, it features international performers being evaluated by three judges—Drew Barrymore, RuPaul and Faith Hill, and a pa ...

'' on

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 Entertainm ...

hosted by James Corden. The series was produced by Darnell and his Warner Horizon Unscripted Television division in association with

Mark Burnett Mark Burnett (born 17 July 1960) is a television producer who is the former Chairman of MGM Worldwide Television Group. He is best known for creating and producing the reality shows ''The Apprentice'', '' Survivor'', ''The Voice'', and ''Sh ...

and

MGM Television MGM Television Worldwide Group and Digital (alternatively Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television Group and Digital, commonly known as MGM Television and then-known as MGM/UA Television; common metonym: Lion) is an American television production/dis ...

and Ben Winston and Fulwell 73. Darnell also created and executive produced the competition series '' Mental Samurai'' on Fox hosted by

Rob Lowe Robert Hepler Lowe (born March 17, 1964) is an American actor, filmmaker, and podcast host. He made his acting debut at the age of 15 with ABC's short-lived sitcom ''A New Kind of Family'' (1979–1980). Following numerous television roles in ...

. The series is produced by Darnell and his Warner Horizon Unscripted Television division in association with Arthur Smith and A. Smith & Co. Productions and Jeff Apploff and Apploff Entertainment.

References

External links

"Mike Darnell on ‘Little Big Shots,’ ‘The Bachelor,’ Ellen DeGeneres and ‘Love Connection’"
April 3, 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Darnell, Mike 1962 births 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American businesspeople American male child actors American television executives California State University, Northridge alumni Fox Broadcasting Company executives Living people Male actors from Philadelphia People from Calabasas, California Warner Bros. people