Speaker Brad Schwartz
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Brad Schwartz has been listed among Broadcasting and Cable’s Next Wave of Leaders, The Hollywood Reporter’s Next Generation, CableFax’s Top 100 Power Players, named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Leaders and was inducted into the CableFax Hall of Fame.
He is currently the President of Entertainment at The CW, responsible for programming strategy, creative and brand development, communications, marketing and day-to-day operations of The CW Network.
Prior to The CW, Schwartz led the high profile, award-winning rebrand of The TV Guide Network to Pop TV, which was purchased by ViacomCBS (NYSE: VIAC) in 2020. As President of the network, Pop TV achieved six consecutive years of growth in audience and revenue. In 2020, Pop TV was the fastest growing (non- news) network in all of television.
Commissioned by The CBC and produced in association with Pop TV, Schwartz brought flagship original series Schitt’s Creek to the network, which received 4 Emmy Nominations in 2019, making Pop only the second basic cable network in history with a Best Comedy Series Emmy Nomination. In 2020, Schitt’s Creek won more Emmys than any comedy series in history and Pop TV won more Emmys than any media brand besides HBO and Netflix. Schwartz also brought Norman Lear’s LatinX reboot of One Day At A Time to Pop TV, which won 2 Emmy Awards and became the highest rated Original Series Premiere in the history of the network. Both series were nominated at the 2019 Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Comedy Series. Schitts Creek was the #6 series in all of streaming in 2020.
Throughout his career, Schwartz has led the transformation or launch of six different media brands and has served as a top executive for MSG Media, Bell Media, Lionsgate and ViacomCBS.
Schwartz began his career working for Lorne Michaels at Saturday Night Live. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
Speaking on: Spotlight: The CW