Tellem was born to a Jewish family in Danville, California, the daughter of an anesthesiologist mother and orthopedic surgeon father. Her parents were Jewish survivors of the Holocaust.^[4][5] Tellem got hooked on TV as a child through fan magazines that the networks used to mail out during the summer to promote new shows.^[6] As an undergraduate at the University of California Berkeley, she interned one summer for Congressman Ron Dellums (D-Calif.) on Capitol Hill and met her future husband, Arn Tellem.^[7] After earning a JD from the University of California Hastings College of the Law,^[8][9] she practiced law as a business litigator for five years in Los Angeles. Among her first jobs was chasing down people who claimed to be heirs to Howard Hughes's estate. Tellem then jumped to entertainment, working initially at Columbia Pictures Television on famed lawyer F. Lee Bailey's short-lived 1982 show Lie Detector. Eventually she would end up working for Merv Griffin Enterprises, including on his Wheel of Fortune show before moving to Lorimar Television, where she was in the business affairs department.^[10]

Warner Bros. and CBS Paramount edit

When Lorimar merged with Warner Bros. television, Leslie Moonves became head of Warner Bros Television. In 1987, he promoted Tellem to Executive Vice President for Business and Financial Affairs and was part of the team that created the landmark shows Friends and ER. When Moonves became head of CBS Entertainment in 1995, two years later, he appointed Tellem the network's Executive Vice President of Business Affairs and President of CBS Productions, the unit responsible for producing original series for the network.

In 1998, Moonves became the president of CBS, and named Tellem his successor.^[11] That year Tellem ascended to the presidency of CBS Network Television Entertainment Group,^[12] where she oversaw programming, development, production, business affairs and network operations for the CBS Entertainment Network and CBS-Paramount Studios. She was responsible for deciding which shows appeared on CBS, supervised the prime-time, daytime, late-night and Saturday morning lineup on both CBS and later, The CW Television Network - the merged network of The WB and UPN - including shows like CSI, Survivor, Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens, and Gossip Girl. In 2010, she stepped down as president, and took on a new role as a senior advisor to Moonves.^[13]

Tellem was the second woman in television history, after ABC's Jamie Tarses, to hold the top entertainment post at a major broadcast network. In 2003, she was named the third most powerful woman in entertainment by The Hollywood Reporter.^[14] From 2006 through 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Tellem 75th, 49th and 32nd, respectively, on its annual list of the 100 Most Powerful Women.^[15][16][17] She placed third on Entertainment Weekly's 2008 list of the 25 smartest people in TV for restoring CBS's entire prime-time line-up quickly after the 100-day writers’ strike.^[18]

Microsoft edit

In June, 2012, reports surfaced that Microsoft was looking to hire Tellem to head the software giant's entertainment division, which included the company's Xbox and Xbox Live products.^[19] In September, 2012, Tellem joined the company as entertainment and digital media president, and set about putting together a team to develop entertainment content that would be available exclusively through the Xbox platform.^[20] She left the company when the studio shut down in October, 2014.

Interlude edit

In April, 2015, Tellem became executive chairman and chief media officer of Interlude, a technology company and creator of proprietary technology used in interactive storytelling. Interlude is now known as eko. Tellem is also an investor in the company, and one of its board of directors.^[21]

Bas Blue

In 2015, Tellem launched BasBlue, Inc. a nonprofit organization providing access, programming, mentorship and education to underrepresented and under-resourced women and non-binary individuals.^[22][23]

In 2006, Tellem was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame, in recognition of her contributions to the electronic arts.^[24] Two years later she received a National Association of Television Program Executives' Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award, which recognizes television professionals who exhibit extraordinary passion, leadership, independence and vision in the process of creating TV programming.^[25]

Tellem is married to former sports agent Arn Tellem, the vice chairman of Palace Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Detroit Pistons.^[26] The couple has three sons: Michael, Matthew and Eric.^[27]

• The Paley Center for Media: Nancy Tellem, Television Executive, Biography