This is a rather unusual transition. While programming executives who step down often segue to non-writing executive producing services on a series they’d developed, Bravo‘s SVP Development Lara Spotts is making the leap from a network executive to showrunner on one of the series she’d shepherded. Spotts is departing her post at Bravo to serve as showrunner on the recently picked up 10-episode third season of the network’s first scripted comedy series Odd Mom Out, created by and starring Jill Kargman.
Spotts, who spearheaded Odd Mom Out’s launch in June 2015, replaces Julie Rottenberg & Elisa Zuritsky who are exiting after serving as showrunners on the series for the first two seasons. They two are coming off a solid run on the show, which had a successful launch and saw ratings growth in its second season, averaging 1.1 million viewers.
Spotts, who oversaw both scripted and unscripted development for Bravo, is the last of the senior scripted executives at individual NBCU cable networks to depart following the company’s restructuring in February when the scripted operations for USA, Syfy, E! and Bravo were merged in one division under Bill McGoldrick. For instance, USA’s EVP original programming Jackie de Crinis segued to an overall deal with UCP and is a non-writing executive producer on one of the series she oversaw, drama Eyewitness.
There is no replacement for Spotts at Bravo but it will likely be a non-scripted executive as the job’s parameters changed following the restructuring.
On Odd Mom Out, which begins production on Season 3 in the spring in New York, Kargman stars as a satirical version of herself as she navigates the treacherous and elite ecosystem of New York’s Upper East Side and the uber-wealthy mothers inhabiting this fantastically outrageous domain. Abby Elliott, Andy Buckley, KK Glick, Sean Kleier and Joanna Cassidy also star. The series is a production of Left/Right Productions, Jax Media and Piro.
As head of development, Spotts led Bravo into the scripted space in 2014 with the network’s first drama Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce. Unscripted seres that she oversaw included Southern Charm, The People’s Couch, Newlyweds: The First Year and Thicker Than Water.
This marks a return to writing for Spotts, who is a WGA member. Prior to Bravo, she developed and executive produced her own documentary Raising Teens for Logo and wrote and produced the short film One Sung Hero, which premiered at Sundance in 2006. Spotts was a staff writer for Showtime’s The L Word and created and produced Totally Hoops for the Disney Channel.
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