Disney Ups Their Unscripted Game By Forming New Production Unit To Create And Sustain Series

Announcing a newly formed unit, Walt DisneyDIS
Television Alternative, the company has elevated a current executive and added three VPs to advance their slate of programming in the genre.

Rob Mills, a long-time Disney exec, will now serve as executive vice president, Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment, Walt Disney Television.

He’ll be joined by Jill Chapman who has been named vice president, Alternative Series and Content Planning, along with Alicia Martino who takes on the role of vice president, Alternative Series; and Mike Rosen will serve as vice president, Production. All three report to Tiffany Faigus, senior vice president, Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment, ABC Entertainment and WDT Alternative.

Chapman comes from within the Disney brand having been at Hulu where she led the Unscripted TV development strategy across original and licensed content with a focus on docu-soap/docu-follow, competition and lifestyle programming. She worked on the Hulu Originals series The D’Amelio Show, Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi and more.

Martino also has ties to ABC, having worked on the early seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. She’s also fostered such titles as Bravo’s Queer Eye…Straight Girl, FOX’s Hell’s Kitchen, BET’s Next Chance Girl Group, CBS’ Love Island, and MTV’s Are You The One?

Rosen has more than 16 years of production experience, serving as executive in charge of production for various networks and studio groups including The CW, FOX, MTV, ABC, and, most recently, Amazon Studios. His past work includes Amazon Studios’ The One That Got Away, ABC’s Pooch Perfect, MTV’s Ex on the Beach, FOX’s Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell & Back, and Logo’s RuPaul’s Drag Race.

WDT Alternative’’s mission is to generate new projects that will live on the networks and platforms within the Disney broadcasting universe, which includes ABC, Hulu and Disney+, among others.

To accomplish this, the team will work to build on the success of the company’s existing unscripted brands while collaborating with the creative community to create, produce, and sustain unscripted series and pilots.

Commenting on the new hires, Mills and Faigus say, “We are excited to have Jill, Alicia and Mike leading production services and creative oversight for WDT Alternative. We are proud to have set the all-star team that will work with all of our creative partners across our platforms and beyond to produce the most groundbreaking and buzzworthy unscripted series and specials.”