Universal Television has appointed Mike Clements as the new Executive Vice President for comedy development and Jim Donnelly as senior vice president, comedy development. Mike Clements will be working under the direction of Universal Television president Bela Bajaria. Jim Donnelly who was previously working with CBS as VP of comedy development is now a part of Bajaria’s team and will be reporting to Mike Clements.
Universal Television President Bela Bajaria stated, “Mike Clements is an extremely well-regarded comedy executive. In addition to being very supportive and collaborative with writers, he is excited about helping us launch great comedies. We are pleased to bring him on board to head comedy at the studio where we remain committed to producing innovative and smart break-out comedies.”
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Bajaria further added that they are additionally thrilled about having Jim Donnelly on board from CBS Studios. She further added, “I have a longtime relationship with Jim and know firsthand how well he works with the creative community. He’ll be a great addition to our strong comedy team, which includes our talented VP of comedy, Dan Shear.”
Mike Clements has a very impressive background having worked with animation studio Bento Box, Fox as well as Warner Bros. Clements spent 14 years as a network comedy executive during the early stages of both Fox and the WB including shows like That 70’s show, The Simpsons, Mad TV. Additionally he has also worked on individual projects with Good Humour Television, HBO, MTV as well as NBC. Jim Donnelly worked on the comedy division of Paramount Televisions as well.
Universal Television is one of the frontrunners in creative television programs and has an impressive list of shows including Community, Outsourced, Law & Order, Suits, The Mindy Project and more. Universal Television is by extension, the production arm of the NBC television network. Both NBC Studios and Universal Network Television are predecessors of Universal Media Studios.
