Brian Graden
President of Entertainment, MTV Networks and President of Logo
Brian Graden is President of Entertainment, MTV Networks Music Channels and President of Logo. As President of Entertainment, Mr. Graden leads and provides programming oversight to all the MTVN music networks including MTV, VH1, MTV2 and CMT. In this capacity, all music, news, specials, production, series development and artist relations teams for the individual music channels report to him. As Logo’s President, he is responsible for all aspects of the channel created specifically for the LGBT audience. Additionally, Mr. Graden also provides programming strategy and expertise for MTV’s extensive international development efforts.
Since Mr. Graden took over programming responsibilities at MTV almost 11 years ago, the channel has been the #1 rated basic cable network for the coveted P12-24 year old demographic every year. Under his guidance, MTV has launched a slew of hits and critically acclaimed series that struck a chord in the pop culture landscape including “The Hills,” “America’s Best Dance Crew,” “Making The Band,” “Run’s House,” “Made,” “Pimp My Ride,” “Punk’d,” “My Super Sweet 16,” ” “Newlyweds,” “Jackass,” “The Osbournes” and “Total Request Live,” as well as the upcoming anticipated premieres of “From G’s To Gents,” and “Paris Hilton’s My New BFF.” Sister network MTV2, now in over 71 million homes, closed out 2007 with its highest rated year in MTV2 history among P12-34 / Males 12-24 and marked five consecutive years of P12-34 growth for MTV2.
Since Mr. Graden joined VH1 in 2002, the network has experienced a widely recognized creative rebirth with ratings increasing 95%. In fact, 2005 was VH1’s most watched year ever in its 20-year history. Fueled by the popularity of such series as “I Love The 70’s/80’s/90’s,” “Storytellers,” “Driven,” “Best Week Ever,” “Rock Docs,” “The Surreal Life,” “Flavor of Love,” “Web Junk 20,” and “Fabulous Life,” VH1 has become “…the destination for hipper-than-thou Gen X-ers eager to celebrate and affectionately denigrate pop culture of yesteryear,” according to The New York Times.
Often breaking the boundaries of what defines country music, Mr. Graden has molded CMT into an innovative music and entertainment entity targeted at America’s heartland. In early 2006, CMT successfully launched the “2006 Miss America Pageant,” delivering the network’s most-watched program in history. In addition, the “2006 CMT Music Awards” delivered wins on multiple screens, including a record-breaking one million unique visitors at CMT.com the week of the awards. CMT continues to grow its original programming slate with hit series such as “Trick My Truck,” “The Ultimate Coyote Ugly Search,” and “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team;” along with music specials, including the critically-acclaimed “CMT Crossroads” and “CMT Giants.” CMT continues to grow music content on multiple platforms with an aggressive growth strategy that included the launch of CMT’s first all-music digital channel CMT Pure Country, and the network’s new broadband channel CMT Loaded.
As president of Logo, Graden helmed what stands as the largest digital channel launch in almost five years. The historic 2005 debut of Logo brought into being the first-ever, full-time ad-supported network for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) audience. Logo launched with more than one thousand hours of content and quickly grew its initial distribution of 13 million U.S. households to more than 30 million today and its federation of Web properties is leading in the LGBT online market. As part of MTV Networks’ overall mission to provide quality entertainment for underserved viewers, Logo provides LGBT audiences with a place where they can see themselves and be themselves, through a mix of original and acquired entertainment programming that is authentic, smart and inclusive. Featuring a library of more than 350 acquired films from every major studio and a constantly growing slate of original series, news and specials, Logo has fast become a viewing destination across multiple viewing platforms for LGBT audiences across the country.
Additionally, Mr. Graden has taken an extremely active role in MTV’s Emmy Award-winning “Fight For Your Rights” campaigns. Launched in 1999, the comprehensive pro-social initiatives have focused on informing, empowering and providing young people with tangible solutions to some of their top concerns including violence, discrimination and sexual health. As part of the campaigns, MTV produced such influential specials as the Peabody Award winning “Social History of HIV” and “Warning Signs,” which explored the psychological factors that contribute to young people becoming violent and how to address them. In addition, MTV premiered the original television movie, “Anatomy of a Hate Crime” which documented the story of Matthew Shepard, the college student who was brutally beaten and murdered because of his sexual orientation.
Throughout his career, Mr. Graden has helped shaped pop culture on television. Before joining MTV Networks, he tapped into the phenomenon that became “South Park,” as he commissioned Matt Stone and Trey Parker to create an animated short called “The Spirit of Christmas,” which he then sent out as a video Christmas card. The five-minute short quickly became the underground secret vice of Hollywood and was honored with the LA Film Critics’ Award for Best Animation. The rest is history as “South Park” was born and quickly became the highest-rated series on COMEDY CENTRAL and spawned the critically-acclaimed feature, “Bigger, Longer & Uncut.”
Mr. Graden joined MTV in July of 1997 as Executive Vice President, Programming. In January of 2000, he was promoted to President, Programming MTV & MTV2 and in May of 2002, he was named President of Entertainment for MTV & VH1. Prior to that, Mr. Graden ran Foxlab, Fox’s home for new and experimental projects, where he oversaw an array of programming initiatives. Mr. Graden also owned his own company, which produced several shows including the “Dating Game” for national syndication.
Mr. Graden holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is based in Santa Monica and works from MTV Networks’ New York and Santa Monica headquarters.
