Jamie Kellner is an American television executive. He was chairman and chief executive officer of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a division of Time Warner which includes TBS, TNT, and Cartoon Network. Kellner took over the post in 2001 and handed over the company to Philip Kent in 2003. He is currently the Chairman of station ownership group ACME Communications, a post held since the company's founding.

Career

Fox Broadcasting Company

Kellner was present at the creation of the Fox Broadcasting Company, which was then considered a radical idea, as it was taking on the three networks that had dominated American television since the 1950s, ABC, CBS and NBC (CBS and NBC were really the "big two", in regards to ratings and number of affiliates, until ABC experienced a surge in popularity in the late 1960s).

Despite incredible skepticism, Kellner was part of the team that gave the network the "attitude" that has marked the network ever since. Among the shows that emerged during Kellner's seven years at Fox were The Simpsons, Married... with Children, Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place and In Living Color. Those shows held the fledgling "web" together until Fox shocked the TV world by winning partial rights to the National Football League in 1994 from CBS; that, as well as channel upgrades in many markets due to Fox's alliance and merger with New World Communications, made Fox a legitimate fourth network.