OXYGEN MEDIA TAPS VETERAN PROGRAMMING EXECUTIVE ROD AISSA AS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING AND DEVELOPMENT

Posted January 11th, 2012

Oxygen Media

NEW YORK – January 11, 2012 – Oxygen Media has tapped veteran programming executive Rod Aissa as Senior Vice President of Original Programming and Development, effective immediately. Aissa will have strategic oversight for all development and production of Oxygen’s original programming. In addition, Aissa will be responsible for shepherding a robust slate of new titles previously announced including “The Next Big Thing,” “LA Style,” “The Eva Marcille Project,” all working titles, as well as returning series like “Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood” and the critically acclaimed “The Glee Project,” which recently completed casting on its next season. Aissa will report to Oxygen President Jason Klarman and will be based in the network’s New York office. Cori Abraham, Senior Vice President, Development and Teri Kennedy, Vice President, Current Production will jointly report to Aissa and together they will be charged with finding new genres, new twists on existing formats and identifying talent that all speak directly to Oxygen’s “Live Out Loud” brand philosophy which targets young women.

"Rod is a smart programming executive who has his finger on the pulse of pop culture and has helped create some of the biggest unscripted shows on TV,” said Klarman. "He will supercharge our already robust efforts in original programming."

Aissa is a seasoned television executive with substantial experience developing and launching unscripted reality series throughout his career. While at MTV he helped launch the careers of such stars as Jenny McCarthy, Carmen Electra, Mandy Moore, Tyrese Gibson, Molly Sims, Carson Daly, Ashton Kutcher and Beyoncé Knowles.

He joins Oxygen from OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network where he had oversight for all programming and development for the newly launched network. Prior to joining OWN, Aissa was Executive Vice President, TV at Katalyst Films, Ashton Kutcher's production company, where he was responsible for developing cable and broadcast properties including two seasons of "True Beauty" for ABC. Earlier in his career, Aissa was executive vice president, series and talent development, MTV/MTV Films. In that capacity he was part of the team that created, developed and executive produced such pop culture classics as "The Osbournes" - for which he won an Emmy® award - "Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica," "The Ashlee Simpson Show," "Punk'd," "Meet the Barkers" and "Adventures In Hollywood."