EXCLUSIVE: Roku, two months after its $22B acquisition by Fox, is bolstering its move into pop culture programming with the hire of former Lifetime executive Nicole Vogel.
Vogel has been named Pop Culture & Fandom Lead, Roku Originals and will report to Head of Originals Brian Tannenbaum.
It comes after the success of The Reunion: Laguna Beach, which launched earlier this year with the likes of Kristin Cavallari, Stephen Colletti and Lauren Conrad returning to share their thoughts on the classic MTV reality series.
Tannenbaum told Deadline in May at the Reality TV Summit that he wanted to do more reunions across non-scripted shows, scripted shows and movies, and Vogel will now oversee this expansion into pop culture and fandom programming.
He said that The Reunion: Laguna Beachwas part of its strategy to “dig into this world of fandom.” “How do we tap into that? When Stephen, Lauren and Liz Gately, the original creator, came into our offices, it felt like a no-brainer. Not only could we celebrate the original show through a special but then we can leverage the power of our platform and build a unique experience where our streamers could also dive right into the original show,” he added.
Vogel’s hire comes a year after she left Lifetime as part of a round of layoffs that impacted the majority of its unscripted team.
At the A+E Networks cable network, she oversaw and exec produced series including The Chrisleys: Back to Reality, Dance Moms, Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking OutandThe Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. She joined from WEtv in 2019.
