Emmy Nominee Bob Boden's career in all forms of non-fiction and unscripted/alternative TV programming has included senior management and production functions for a variety of television studios, networks, and production companies. He is frequently acknowledged as an industry leader in the game and reality genres. In 2008 he was named to the top 50 Reality TV Power List by the Hollywood Reporter.
He is currently Executive Vice President, Production and Development for Byron Allen's ENTERTAINMENT STUDIOS, a global media company. He also serves as Executive Producer of the nationally syndicated comedy celebrity game show Funny You Should Ask, which began its third season in fall, 2019.
Prior to Entertainment Studios, Bob was Consulting Producer of two prime time series: ABC's To Tell the Truth and FOX's Superhuman, as well as Co-Executive Producer of the Ellen DeGeneres game show, Head's Up!, based on the wildly popular app. He was also Co-Executive Producer / writer of BOOM! for dick clark productions on FOX primetime, and Executive Producer of GSN's The Chase, an adaptation of the popular UK format owned by ITV, which ran for four seasons and achieved record-breaking ratings.
The Chase has garnered three Emmy nominations, the most for any series in the history of Game Show Network. The New York Post called The Chase "the most addictive game show since the original Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." The National Enquirer said it is "the most intelligent, exciting and entertaining TV quiz show in decades." The series was picked up by the network for a second season even before the first season premiered.
The Chase was also a nominee for the 1st Breakthrough Awards, presented by the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE), as well as the Real Screen Award for Best Competition—Game/Quiz Show. Bob originally produced the US pilots for the series on the London set.
In his career he has produced, launched and consulted on shows in Canada, Mexico, England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Israel, Ireland, Scotland, and the United Arab Emirates.
Bob was named to the prestigious consulting team for the Format People Group, an international television consulting company with clients in the US, UK, Canada, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Israel, Egypt, South Africa, Mongolia, China, Malaysia, South Korea, and many more territories, which specializes in format creation, development and doctoring, purchase, sales and distribution strategy; ground-up network infrastructure, up-skilling, original studio design, network brand identity, programming, international market and conference development and implementation. In this role, Bob will be conducting in-house training and workshops affiliated with the Entertainment Master Class, as well as acting as a "flying producer" to launch and supervise formats around the globe.
He also served as Executive Producer for syndication presentations of the classic game show format Make Me Laugh, and the new format Trivia Crack, as well as the FOX primetime pilot of Don't Lose the Money with Shine America, which was produced in Germany and based on a foreign format. He recently consulted with All 3 Media & Studio Lambert on the development of NBC's Million Second Quiz, an epic live event that aired as an 11-night run in primetime and a 24/7 interactive web event. He also consulted on 120 episodes of the classic format Match Game, recently airing on Canada's Comedy Channel.
Since leaving his position as Senior VP, Reality & Game Show Production & Development, Hasbro Studios, he was a consultant to numerous prominent companies, including Sony Pictures TV International, National Geographic Channel, Endemol Shine USA, Mark Burnett Productions, Fremantle Media, Telepictures, dick clark productions, Talpa Media, Stage 29 Prods., Lionsgate, Ryan Seacrest Prods., Electus, Warner Bros. Animation, ITV Studios, Vin di Bona Productions, Mission Control Media, GSN, Zodiak USA, Bunim-Murray Productions, Core Media, Next Entertainment, Sharp Entertainment, Shed Media, DirecTV, Nigel Lythgoe Productions, Stone & Company, Don Mischer Productions, Zone 3 (Canada), 44 Blue, Atlas Media, and playkast.com.
He has also co-created over three dozen original formats that were developed for a variety of networks and major production companies; some of these properties have been optioned by Fremantle Media, Bunim-Murray Productions, Ryan Seacrest Productions, A. Smith Co., ITV Studios, and Discovery Studios.
At Hasbro, he also served as Executive Producer on four series airing on the HUB Network, Family Game Night, The Game of Life, Scrabble Showdown and Pictureka!. He and his team also developed numerous other game and reality formats based on Hasbro brands, including Trivial Pursuit, Catch Phrase, Scattergories, and Yahtzee.
During his tenure at Hasbro, he received the company's top Innovation Award for the Emmy-winning breakout hit series Family Game Night, which ranked as the highest-rated non-scripted series in the HUB's target demo. Bob was chosen to attend the prestigious Global Leadership Conference at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business.
Prior to his position at Hasbro, he served as Senior VP, Programming, Production & Development for the Fox Reality Channel since just before the network launched. He also supervised scheduling & operations, developed and served as executive producer on over 600 hours of original programming.
His numerous docu-soap and competition series, specials and interstitial programs included American Idol Extra (4 seasons), Solitary (4 seasons), Househusbands of Hollywood, Paradise Hotel 2, The Academy: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and Orange County Fire Authority, Battle of the Bods, Reality Remix, Reality Binge, The Really Awards, The Search for the Next Elvira, Gimme My Reality Show! and Reality Revealed. He also pioneered the network's only web series, Nightclub Confessions.
While at FOX, Bob was also recruited to help launch and produce two hit prime time network game shows, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? and Don't Forget the Lyrics, both of which went on to successful runs in broadcast and syndication.
Bob was formerly Sr. VP, Programming, at Game Show Network, where he was the executive in charge of over 500 hours of original programming, including game shows, reality, casino, hidden camera, video games and relationship shows. His concept for the documentary Big Bucks: the Press Your Luck Scandal, stood as the network's highest rated broadcast in their history for over nine years. Also at GSN, he oversaw the production and development of numerous game series, including Lingo, Whammy!, The All New Press Your Luck, Russian Roulette, Friend or Foe, Cram, Wintuition, Fake-a-Date, and National Lampoon's Funny Money. He developed the network's first reality series, Naturally Stoned, with Chuck Woolery, and the hidden camera comedy series Foul Play.
Prior to that, Bob served as Sr. VP, Production & Development for dick clark productions, where he also co-created and Executive Produced FOX's prime time game show Greed and two prime-time FOX specials looking for the Smartest Kid in America. Bob also served as supervising producer at Fremantle Media for the inaugural season of the nationally syndicated show Family Feud, which is now in season 15.
Bob previously held the position of VP, Development and Production for FX networks, where he developed comedy, variety, reality, lifestyle, celebrity interview and game series for all dayparts and supervised all live and tape production from the network's New York "apartment," including Personal FX: the Collectibles Show, celebrity interview series Backchat, and the Emmy-award winning Pet Department. His original prime time productions included the raucous competition Bobcat's BigAss Show, Instant Comedy with the Groundlings, and the edgy variety series Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular, on which Bob also served as co-EP.
Prior to his position at FX, Bob was Vice President, Daytime Programs for the Family Channel, where he was responsible for five hours of daily programming, including the family-oriented game shows Shop 'Til You Drop, Shopping Spree, Small Talk, Wait 'Til You Have Kids and Family Challenge, and was executive in charge of Home & Family, a two-hour daily live talk show which he helped develop. He also EP'd the network's daytime preview special.
Bob was Director of Programming for the launch of Game Show Network, where he created live original interactive programs and supervised all production, including a morning and late-night talk show and a prime-time phone-based game, Decades. Previously, he was VP, Development for Mark Goodson Productions, where he established WGN's weekly lottery game show, Illinois Instant Riches, which aired nationwide.
Bob served as supervising producer on the primetime special, The Nova Quiz, which kicked off the science series' 20th season on PBS; he also co-created PBS's first prime-time quiz show, Think Twice. Bob was a development executive for Disney's Buena Vista Productions, following a stint as Director of Daytime Development for ABC, where he oversaw numerous pilots and two daytime series, Home and Match Game.
Earlier, he was Director of Development for Barry & Enright Productions, where he was also supervising producer for Bumper Stumpers, a game show on USA Network, the syndicated game Pictionary, and Secret Lives, a syndicated reality program.
Bob was a programming executive at CBS Daytime, where he was involved in the initial development of the serial The Bold and the Beautiful and supervised the production of numerous series, including The Price is Right, The $25,000 Pyramid, Card Sharks, Blackout and Press Your Luck.
Bob first joined CBS as Manager, National Television Research, after which he was chosen as a member of the exclusive executive management training program. He came to CBS from Paramount, where he was a syndication research analyst in domestic distribution.
Bob's television career started in the prompting business, where he printed and flipped cue cards for dozens of series, specials, live events, prime time variety and reality, soap operas, sitcoms, talk, game shows and commercials. His early work also included positions on pilots including the revival of Queen for a Day, consultant on the groundbreaking prime time reality series Real People, answering fan mail for Days of Our Lives, free-lance writing for Jeopardy! and an internship on The Price is Right.
He has worked as a producer and consultant for television entities such as AMC, Fox Family Channel, Nickelodeon, Univision, Fremantle Media, Nash Entertainment, Telepictures, Studios USA, Fisher Entertainment, Stone Stanley Productions, HBO Independent Productions, WGBH-TV, Four Point Television, Columbia Pictures Television, MCA Television and Twentieth Television. In addition, he consulted on the pioneer interactive game show website, uproar.com.
Among the shows on which Bob also consulted were Bet on Your Baby (ABC), Temptation (20th TV), Trato Hecho (Spanish version of Let's Make a Deal for Univision), Who Wants to Be a Hilton? (NBC), and Next Great Champ (FOX).
Bob is currently Governor of the Reality Programming Peer Group of the Television Academy, and previously served on the Board of Governors for ten years, in addition to one year on the Executive Committee. He is also currently chair-emeritus of the Primetime Awards Committee and previously chaired the Daytime Awards Committee. He has also served on many committees including Membership, Activities, Bylaws, Diversity, Creative Arts, and Anti-Proliferation.
In the academic world, for the past three years Bob has been an adjunct professor for the legendary Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University's L.A. Semester Program. He has also been an instructor for UCLA Extension's Entertainment Division, as well as a guest lecturer for the Banff Master Class, and at USC and Cal State Fullerton. He has participated on numerous prestigious industry panels, including NATPE and Realscreen.
Bob graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors from UCLA, earning a Bachelor's Degree in Theatre Arts. He is a native of New York and currently lives with his family in Los Angeles. He is represented by APA.
updated 12.17.19
