Jamie Kellner, Turner Broadcasting Executive Who Canceled WCW In 2000, Dies At 77
The wrestling world is currently revisiting the question of "Who Killed WCW?" on Vice and while a number of theories about the promotion's misfortune has been floated, the man who decided to cancel WCW's programming on Turner Networks was Jamie Kellner. According to Variety, Kellner, the television titan who was responsible for helping found The Fox Network, as well as creating The WB, and briefly reigning as Ted Turner's successor as the chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting, died at the age of 77 on Friday.
After getting his start in TV at CBS, Kellner was made the founding chairman of The Fox Network in 1986, a tenure which saw him greenlight such shows as "The Simpsons," "Married With Children," and "COPS," a slate of programming that held the network together until it reached an agreement with the NFL in 1994. After leaving Fox in 1993, Kellner helped found The WB, which saw "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," "Gilmore Girls," "Charmed," "Dawson's Creek" and others air during his tenure. Kellner was also responsible for the first syndication deal for the popular "Saturday Night Live." The WB eventually merged with UPN forming The CW, which will be the future home of "WWE NXT."
Kellner joined Turner Broadcasting in 2000, succeeding Ted Turner as chairman and CEO of the company in March 2001. That March was also when Kellner made the call to remove all WCW programming from Turner Networks. Kellner did not take part in the current documentary on Vice, but according to the book "NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW" by Guy Evans, Kellner's decision to cancel WCW was motivated by Fusient Media Venture, which was looking to buy WCW at the time, but also wanted control over time slots on Turner's TBS and TNT networks.
He would later retire from Turner, never returning to television as an executive, though he did join other Fox executives in an FCC petition to revoke the broadcast license of a Fox affiliate in Philadelphia, due to their commitment to acting as a sounding board for election tampering conspiracies. He is survived by his wife, his two children, and his three grandchildren.