Objective Media Group’s entertainment label Panda Television has hired a series editor of The Voice UK and the creator of Big Star’s Little Star as it beefs up its team.
Panda chief creative officer Moira Ross has drafted in her former Wall to Wall colleague Ed Booth as editor of entertainment and Talkback Productions’ development executive Stefan Iriarte as head of development.
The pair will focus on working with big name talent to help bring a fresh, home-grown feel to Saturday night TV and entertainment in general.
Booth worked across all five series of The Voice UK, including as a series editor, and was previously involved with BBC in-house shows including Strictly Come Dancing and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s talent shows, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria, Any Dream Will Do and I’d Do Anything.
Iriarte was at 12 Yard for two years, where he was responsible for ITV’s Big Star’s Little Star and BBC1’s Pressure Pad. He went on to join Talkback as a development executive where he helped develop ITV quiz format, Freeze Out.
Ross described Booth as having “earned his BBC1 prime-time stripes” and said Iriarte was “a proper ideas man”.
She added: “It’s a big challenge to find an entertainment format that can capture the heart and imagination of the nation the way the likes of The Voice and Strictly Come Dancing have in the past, but I believe we could do just that.”
The Voice UK executive producer Ross established Panda earlier this year, reporting to Objective Media Group chief executive Layla Smith.
Panda sits alongside Deborah Sargeant’s factual entertainment label Second Star Productions and Ben Farrell’s scripted comedy and drama label Objective Fiction
Separately, it has emerged this week that following the completion of Objective’s restructure in May, managing director Stuart Duthie stood down from the organisation.
No comments yet