MGM Alternative Shakeup: Lucilla D’Agostino To Run ‘On Patrol: Live’ Producer Big Fish & ‘Real Housewives’ Producer Evolution As Dan Cesareo Exits
11.07.2023 - 22:49
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: MGM Alternative is undergoing some leadership changes.
Lucilla D’Agostino is taking sole charge of MGM-owned producers Big Fish Entertainment (On Patrol: Live) and Evolution Media, which is behind a number of The Real Housewives franchises, after the exit of Dan Cesareo.
Cesareo founded the company, which was also behind A&E’s Live PD and Food Network’s Amy Schumer Learns To Cook, in 2006 and sold it to MGM in June 2018. It is understood he is exiting after his five-year deal came to an end.
Cesareo will still oversee and exec produce On Patrol: Live, which has become a ratings success for Reelz, and D’Agostino will also exec produce. Cesareo’s arrangement is similar to that of former MGM’s Worldwide Television Group Chairman Mark Burnett, who will continue to exec produce legacy series The Voice, Shark Tank and Survivor, and Alex Baskin, who continues to exec produce a number of The Real Housewives series and Vanderpump Rules.
D’Agostino, who becomes head of both Big Fish and Evolution, is seen as a rising star in the reality world; she was named Co-President of Big Fish Entertainment last year, having spent four years as Chief Creative Officer. She has exec produced series including Amy Schumer Learns to Cook, A&E’s Secrets of the Chippendales Murders, HGTV’s Ugliest House in America and Martha Knows Best, Food Network’s A White House Thanksgiving with First Lady Jill Biden and History’s Greatest Heists with Pierce Brosnan.
Before joining Big Fish, she was EVP, Current Programming and Development at Sirens Media, where she exec produced series including The Real Housewives of New Jersey and Discovery’s true crime series Killing Fields.
She will report to Barry Poznick, General Manager of MGM Alternative,