Amazon studios restructures MGM TV scripted operations

After recently restructuring Amazon Studios’ original content operations, Head of Television Vernon Sanders now is setting up the MGM scripted TV leadership with new roles for Lindsay Sloane, Senior EVP of MGM Scripted TV, and Rola Bauer, President of International TV for MGM.

Sloane will become Head of MGM US Scripted TV, while Bauer will expand her responsibilities as Head of Pan-English Scripted SVOD TV, Development & Series. Sloane and Bauer will report to Sanders alongside his direct reports on the Amazon Studios side, Lauren Anderson, Laura Lancaster and Nick Pepper.

As part of the restructuring, MGM US Scripted TV will absorb Orion Television, the label that was revived two years ago. Orion TV EVP Bradley Gardner, who led the programming team, is stepping down and is in discussions for a producing deal at MGM TV.

Sanders’ memo does not mention Michael Wright, who most recently served as President of MGM Scripted Television and President of MGM+ (formerly Epix). As Deadline reported earlier this month, the expectation is that Wright, who had run Epix before expanding his role in 2021 to oversee MGM’s scripted studio following Steve Stark’s exit, will once again focus on MGM+, which is taking on a new role as part of the larger Amazon TV portfolio. The studio part of his job has now been taken over by Sloane.

As the new Head of MGM US Scripted TV, Sloane and her team will develop projects for Amazon Studios and continue to take projects to outside buyers.

In Bauer’s new role, she will oversee the development and production of English-language originals for Prime Video outside of the U.S. This is a separate division from Amazon Studios’ Local Original Series & Movie content unit run by James Farrell.

The reorganization comes eight months after Amazon completed its acquisition of MGM and a day after Mark Burnett exited as chairman of MGM’s Worldwide Television Group. (He will continue to oversee his legacy series including Survivor, Shark Tank and The Voice.)

As Deadline reported earlier this month, employees across MGM’s television and film business who have contracts have been offered one-year extensions as Amazon started to bring the vaunted Hollywood studio inside its entertainment division. This followed the first step in combining the workforces which involved looking at the executive levels within Amazon Studios and MGM and aligning the structures at the two companies. I hear Gardner was among those who were not offered a contract. Deadline