Fremantle Promotes Kevin Woodward to Executive VP of Production

Fremantle has upped Kevin Woodward to serve as executive VP of production, the company announced Friday. Woodward moves up from senior VP of production; he reports to Fremantle U.S. COO Suzanne Lopez.

In his new role, Woodward — who first joined Fremantle in 2014 — will now oversee all physical production for the U.S. unscripted studio, including pre-production, budgeting, production and post production for development projects and active productions. His oversight includes Fremantle productions like “Family Feud,” “American Idol” and “America’s Got Talent.” His duties also include Fremantle’s Haven Studios operations, home of “Let’s Make A Deal” and “The Price Is Right.”

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“Kevin has been instrumental in the success of our growing day-to-day production needs,” Lopez said in a statement. “I know that with his keen understanding of our unscripted series and valuable relationships with EICs, showrunners and partners, he will continue to innovate and expand our production capabilities and solutions across our wide slate of unscripted projects. In addition, having Ryan expand his expertise to Fremantle shows will bring our post production workflow and efficiency to the peak of excellence.”

Before joining Fremantle, Wooward served as a freelance production accountant on Fremantle unscripted shows and shorter-run projects.

“I am excited about the continued success of the company as we produce audience-beloved iconic shows like ‘The Price Is Right’ and ‘Family Feud’ and add new projects to our robust unscripted slate,’” Woodward said. “I have always viewed Fremantle as the standard in the unscripted industry, as both a creator and producer, and it’s an honor to continue my journey as part of such a stellar team.”

Meanwhile, Fremantle has also moved Ryan Abbott, the senior VP of post production, operations and music for Original Productions, into “an expanded post production and supervisory music role on Fremantle productions.” He also continues overseeing operations for Max Post. Abbott, who first joined Original Prods. in 2017 (and reports to Original Prods. prexy Jeff Hasler), has worked on “Deadliest Catch,” “Jay Leno’s Garage” and other projects. He previously was head of post production for 495 Productions.