Brian Graden

Executive vice president

MTV

MTV may be based in New York, but its chief programming executive Brian Graden works in the network’s Santa Monica office.

“His mantra is to present music videos in a new way,” said an MTV spokesman. “He wants to make it fresh, make it new, make it interesting.”

To accomplish that, Graden has put MTV’s prime-time emphasis back on music, debuting several music-video-based shows. He simultaneously shifted long-form programming into late-night hours, so as to avoid going head to head with prime-time network shows.

Among the shows Graden has debuted in MTV’s prime-time lineup are “Artist’s Cut,” in which musicians’ dubbed-in voices offer commentary on their videos as the videos appear on the screen; and “Total Request,” which counts down the most-requested music videos of the day.

Graden, 35, was first hired a year ago to head the long-form programming group, a team of about a dozen people at the Santa Monica office who are responsible for developing, creating and overseeing the network’s series.

He was promoted within four months to his current position, created specifically for him. Graden reports directly to the president of MTV, Judy McGrath. As programming chief, Graden has begun bringing music back to the network by devoting the prime-time block solely to music videos.

That helped boost MTV’s prime-time ratings by 17 percent in the second quarter, vs. the year-ago quarter. The network’s total-day ratings were up 25 percent in both the first and second quarters of 1998, vs. the year-earlier quarters.

MTV has gone into production with 25 pilots the most aggressive development the network has ever undertaken. About half a dozen of those shows are now on the air, with lifestyle and comedy shows scheduled for 10 p.m. and later.

“Celebrity Death Match,” a weekly claymation series that features no-holds-barred fights between celebrities (Hanson vs. the Spice Girls, Hillary Clinton vs. Monica Lewinsky), has emerged as a winner from that slate. “Fanatic,” in which fans get a chance to meet and interview their favorite stars, debuted in July.

In his former position as senior vice president of Foxlab, a division of Fox Television that was devoted to developing original syndicated programming, Graden co-created the show “Studs.” He also commissioned TV writers Matt Stone and Trey Parker to produce a video Christmas card featuring a fistfight between Jesus and Santa Claus. That video became the basis for the hit show “South Park,” which he eventually sold to Comedy Central.

Jill Rosenfeld