David McKillop

TV Real Weekly, August 29, 2008

Senior VP, Development & Programming

History

Even a brand as tried and tested as A&E Television Networks’ History channel needs to be refreshed every so often, and with a raft of innovative series and specials that have premiered over the last year and new ones set to launch, the network is capturing a whole new audience while maintaining its avid viewers. “Topically, we’re showing the same types of programs, but we’re executing them in a totally new way,” explains David McKillop, the senior VP of development and programming for History. “We’ve been growing the brand, refreshing the brand and changing the execution—that’s kind of the big picture that works to define our success.”

Ice Road Truckers set the pace by drawing in a younger demographic for the channel, and the success of series such as Cities of the Underworld, The Universe, Ancient Discoveries and UFO Hunters is another testament to the expanding taste of History watchers. The network has also seen a healthy appetite for American originals, and will be launching Sandhogs, which looks at the history of the down-and-dirty, dangerous lives of the men who work underground to build tunnels beneath New York. In 2009, History will take a closer look at another part of signature Americana, cowboys. Also in the works, the network has teamed up with famed reality-TV producer Mark Burnett for a new series called Expedition: Stanley and Livingstone, which retraces the historic steps of newsman Henry Morton Stanley’s quest to find the missing Dr. David Livingstone.

Though this new range of series has cast a wide net for reeling in a broader audience, McKillop stresses that “specials are still incredibly important to [History]. They are the pillars that we rely on.” Coming up on the network’s roster is a new program on Albert Einstein, which taps some of today’s top minds to take an in-depth look at the legendary genius, along with new projects that explore two landmark events in America’s past: World War II and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The ten-part series WW II HD will use more than 3,000 hours of restored color archival footage and hundreds of pages of unpublished diaries and journals, and is set for delivery in 2009. 102 Minutes that Changed America, which will premiere without commercial interruption at 9 p.m. on September 11, examines the events of that fateful day in American history through a fresh lens—the bystanders who filmed the event first hand. “It is a show that’s put together completely of images and video that was taken by individuals on the streets of New York,” explains McKillop. “There’s no narrator, it’s all the natural sound, no commercials, it is a truly moving film that starts at the moment the first plane hit and continues on until the collapse of the second tower. It’s going to be impactful, it’s going to be different,” he says.

These new projects and the increased scope of History’s programming are keeping McKillop on his toes, creating exciting challenges for what lies ahead. “What I’m looking forward to is doing what I do best, developing a strong slate of specials and series for 2009 and 2010 and looking forward to making sure the programs we have in production are up to the promises of the brand. That’s my job!”

A history major in college, McKillop’s career has run the gamut of factual television, having worked at the likes of, among others, National Geographic Television and Discovery Channel. “I like to say that I’ve done every single job,” he explains. “My first job was to walk the boss’s dog, literally. I actually got the job because the dog liked me and it didn’t like anybody else,” he says with a laugh. “So, they hired me and my job was to walk the dog. From there, the rest is history, pun intended.”

—By Kristin Brzoznowski