Senior Vice President Development and Programming Melanie Chilek is an experienced, respected studio executive, producer, and developer of entertainment, informational, and non-fiction content. She is an effective and skilled leader, and manager of the processes, which turn good ideas into good businesses.

Most recently, Chilek was Senior Vice President, Development for Sony Pictures Television (SPT), and served as the senior creative executive for SPT’s extensive reality and alternative programming slate for syndication, cable and prime time television for 14 years. During her tenure there, Chilek developed and oversaw numerous programs that became successful franchise properties and profit centers for the studio both domestically and internationally. She mined and re-developed several of Sony’s classic game show titles, including “$25,000 Pyramid,” “The Dating Game,” “The Newlywed Game,” “The Gong Show.” Another franchise success, “Ripley’s Believe it or Not,” ran in cable and syndication as well as in multiple foreign territories and in many different foreign languages.

Also in Chilek’s purview of first-run series was “The Ricki Lake Show,” which had a successful 11-year run in domestic syndication as well as in English speaking foreign countries and changed the face of daytime and in particular, television geared towards young women. She was also responsible for the talk show “Donny and Marie,” and the Emmy Award-winning series “Judge Hatchett,” plus numerous others series. Prior to Sony, Chilek developed original programming for Lifetime Television and served as a producer of non-fiction and informational television programming.