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Susan Lyne

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TV Executive

The Resume

    (April 30, 1950- )
    Born in Boston, Massachusetts
    Middle name is Markham
    CEO of AOL (2013-14)
    President/CEO of Martha Stewart Living (2004-08)
    President of ABC Entertainment (2002-04)
    Executive Vice President at The Walt Disney Company (1996-2002)
    Founder/Editor of Premier Magazine (1986-95)

Why she might be annoying:

    She greenlit the Bachelor for ABC.
    Its success led her to reluctantly foist an additional six new reality shows on the public for ABC's 2003 season at the behest of Disney executives (they all failed).
    She particularly hated the reality show ‘Are You Hot?’ - later saying: ‘I was embarrassed watching that. When it was pitched to us it sounded like fun … In reality, once we watched it we were mortified.’
    She was ousted as ABC president after two years, which was a year shorter than her previous three predecessors whose tenure had also been rocky.
    Ironically, two of the shows she greenlit - Lost and Desperate Housewives - became huge hits for the network AFTER she had already stepped down.
    When she worked for Martha Stewart, she had a hand in the disaster that was the Martha Stewart Apprentice.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was married to CBS reporter George Crile, who died in 2006 after thirty years of marriage.
    She was editor for The Village Voice when it secured a Pulitzer Prize for its story on the death of Dorothy Stratten.
    A story she published for City Magazine was crucial to changing the narrative and helping to put Patty Hearst in jail.
    She was a Vice President at Jane Fonda’s Indochina Peace Campaign film company in the 1980’s.
    She was credited with helping to revive Martha Stewart’s business empire after she was sentenced to prison for insider trading.
    She made the unlikely leap to venture capitalist startups just as she was reaching her peak in corporate America, helping to found Gilt Groupe (a luxury e-commerce site) in 2008, and BBG Ventures (focused on companies with female founders), in 2014.
    She was rumored to have given birth in a hospital hallway after dropping colleagues off without even telling them she was in labor (she later clarified that it was in a hospital taxi and that she made it to the hospital room but barely).
    'Commander in Chief' creator Rod Lurie reportedly based Geena Davis' first female president character (Mackenzie Allen) on her.

Credit: BoyWithTheGreenHair


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