John Saade

SVP Alternative Series, Specials & Late Night Programming, ABC Entertainment Group

John Saade was named senior vice president, Alternative Series, Specials and Late-Night, ABC Entertainment Group, in June 2009. Mr. Saade heads the department along with Vicki Dummer. Proir to his Group title, Mr. Saade had been senior vice president, Alternative Series, Specials and Late Night, ABC Entertainment, since September 2006. He reports to Stephen McPherson, president, ABC Entertainment Group.

In this role, Mr. Saade focuses on development for ABC’s alternative series, along with current production and late-night, as well as the management of the Alternative Series staff and spearheading the creative efforts for upcoming projects.

Mr. Saade has been instrumental in acquiring, developing and overseeing such hits as “Dancing with the Stars,” “Wipeout,” “The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette,” “Extreme Makeover” and “The Mole,” among many others. He has overseen many high profile specials, including the Oscars, the Emmys, the David Blaine specials and Oprah Winfrey’s specials for the network -- “Oprah’s Big Give” and “Leadership Academy.” In late-night he oversaw the series “Politically Incorrect” and was instrumental in launching “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Previously, while at Dakota Films, Mr. Saade produced a wide variety of shows, including “The Best Commercials You've Never Seen,” “In Style’s Celebrity Weddings,” Billy Crystal films that opened the 1999 Academy Awards, and a series of stand-up comedy specials for HBO. He was also coordinating producer on “Mr. Show with Bob and David” and “Tenacious D.”

Mr. Saade began his career by working his way up the production ranks as a runner on award shows and as an associate director on “Muppets Tonight,” as well as writer, supervising producer or associate director on numerous variety and comedy series and specials.

Mr. Saade is a graduate of Northwestern University.