• by Wayne Friedman , November 5, 2014

Former Fox Broadcasting executive Kevin Reilly will become president of Turner Broadcasting System’s TBS and TNT and chief creative officer for Turner Entertainment.

Unique in the appointment: Reilly will also chair the newly formed Turner Entertainment Programming Council, which will coordinate senior programming executives of TNT, TBS, Adult Swim and truTV for cross-platform opportunities.

"The creation of a chief creative officer role is central to my model for more aggressively engaging in the war for content," stated David Levy, president of Turner Broadcasting. Reilly will report to Levy and will be based in Los Angeles.

TNT averaged 2.20 million prime-time viewers in the third quarter of this year -- first among all cable networks. This was a bit below its results a year ago when it was at 2.26 million. TBS was at 1.64 million in the most recent third-quarter period -- tied for fifth, down from 1.85 million in the third quarter of 2013.

Reilly left Fox this past summer after the network had sharply fallen from its first-place position among 18-49 viewers over the past two seasons, starting in the 2012-2013 TV season.

Reilly had been the top entertainment executive at Fox, most recently as chairman of entertainment for Fox Broadcasting Co. Fox TV network was No. 1 among 18-49 viewers from the 2004-2005 season through the 2011-2012 season. Reilly joined the company in July 2007 as president of entertainment for the network.

Before Fox, Reilly was president of entertainment at NBC, where he oversaw “The Office,” “The Biggest Loser,” “Heroes,” “Friday Night Lights” and “30 Rock.”

Reilly was also president of entertainment for FX, where original programs “The Shield” and “Nip/Tuck” earned strong critical reviews and strong viewership.