Producer Barry Poznick Joins MGM Television

LOS ANGELES: MGM Television Group has hired seasoned TV producer Barry Poznick as the company’s president of unscripted television.

In his new role, Poznick will work under Mark Burnett, the president of MGM Television and Digital Group. He will be responsible for overseeing the creative and development of all of the company’s unscripted TV content.

Poznick has produced a number of series with Burnett, including FOX’s Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, TV Land’s How’d You Get So Rich? and TBS’s Trust Me, I’m a Game Show Host. In 1994 he founded Zoo Productions, an indie unscripted production company that was later acquired by All3Media. In 2013, he established Barracuda Television Productions and entered into a multiyear deal with Electus. Among the other unscripted series that Poznick has produced and/or created throughout his 25-year career are Buckwild (MTV), World’s Worst Tenants (Spike) and Prankstars (Disney), to name a few.

Burnett said: “I took my time in finding the absolute best president for MGM’s unscripted television group. Barry Poznick is it.

“In order to produce hit television shows you need to be able to create, to produce and to market—Barry Poznick can do it all. He has been successful in prime-time network, prime-time cable and daytime syndication. We have made hundreds of hours of TV together and Barry is the perfect person to build upon MGM’s solid unscripted foundation.”

“The opportunity to reunite with Mark, the master of innovative reality TV, and to work with the MGM unscripted team was a no-brainer,” added Poznick. “MGM is one of Hollywood’s most legendary studios with prime-time shows on every major network and hit shows on cable. I am excited to help them continue creating innovative, original and epic programming to entertain viewers around the world.”