Women in Entertainment 2011

Anne Sweeney

The real question everyone's asking about Anne Sweeney isn't how she manages to pull off business miracles — like stanching the blood at ABC by hiring former ABC Family chief Paul Lee as its entertainment president or seeing operating income in her empire grow a whopping 20 percent compared with fiscal 2010 — it's where does she go next?

THR's most powerful woman in entertainment for a second consecutive year has been the subject of speculation about whether she'll succeed her boss, Walt Disney Co. chairman and CEO Robert Iger, when he steps down in 2015. If she does (media analysts favor CFO Jay Rasulo and Thomas Staggs, chairman of Parks and Resorts, but aren't ruling her out), it would mark a crack in the glass ceiling for women who've climbed high in media companies but never ascended to the top.

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

Sweeney, 54, will never say if that's her goal. "Ultimately, it's the board's decision to make," she notes with the skilled diplomacy that is her trademark. "I don't think many people are speculating. But really, no one's opinion counts more than the board's."

You can bet the board will be influenced by the success of Sweeney's portfolio, which includes a broadcast network, seven cable networks, eight local TV stations, Hyperion Publishing and Radio Disney, not to mention the company's 42.5 percent equity stake in A+E Networks and nearly 10,000 employees.

It is also sure to be influenced by 2011, during which revenue at Disney Media Networks is up 9 percent to $18.7 billion, leaving that segment of the Walt Disney Co. valued at $58.9 billion alone, according to Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew Harrigan.

Add to this the fact that Sweeney, a married mother of two, has spearheaded a string of headline-making deals and innovations, and the sum is impressive. During the past year, she has pulled off a partnership between ABC News and Yahoo ("ABC News traffic soared from minute one," she says); Canada's ABC Spark, the Disney Television Group's first international millennial channel; ABC On Demand, the first on-demand entertainment service in the U.K., Germany and Portugal, with more markets planned for 2012; and a multiyear pact to bring Katie Couric to ABC in 2012 via a nationally syndicated talk show that has already been sold to more than 80 percent of U.S. TV households.

There are still question marks. Can her protege Lee truly turn around the flagging ABC? And can her handpicked lieutenant, Ben Sherwood, resuscitate ABC News, where insiders say Sweeney is far more involved than she lets on? (Again, ratings increases across the board bode well.)

But her success is all the more striking for an executive who never flaunts her power, who took the time to guide an inner-city teenager as part of THR's Women in Entertainment Mentorship Program and whose own child struggles with autism. Sweeney, who once aspired to be a teacher, is teaching Hollywood how to combine a private life with a professional one — and how a business can thrive in a desperate economy. "We have weathered tremendous storms as a country and as a company," she says. "The reason we have come out stronger is because we encouraged people to be inventive and not paralyzed by fear."

Amy Pascal

Pascal is a throwback to the Hollywood moguls of yore — a gutsy and tough-minded individualist who believes in taking risks on important, and in some cases, unconventional projects, like last year's acclaimed The Social Network and next year's reboot of Spider-Man with the outside-the-box choice of Marc Webb as director. When Pascal calls, the town jumps.

Still, following the super-sized success of 2010, this year was a bit of a dip — and how could it not be? When the year comes to a close, the studio Pascal runs with Michael Lynton will have yielded more than $3 billion in worldwide theatrical sales, down from 2010's extraordinary $3.6 billion. (In addition to Social Network with its eight Oscar noms, last year she had the international hit The Karate Kid  that grossed $359 million worldwide.)

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

This year, The Smurfs has earned more than $540?million worldwide, and the $20 million production Bad Teacher has generated more than $210 million, but Sony's most high-profile movie — the Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara starrer The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, based on Stieg Larsson's international best-seller, which could notch another David Fincher win — has yet to open.

Additionally, Pascal recently had to sever ties with director James L. Brooks and likely will face belt-tightening to help parent Sony Corp., hit hard by disasters in Japan. "Everybody has to adjust to the new economy and the new world we live in," she says, "and to be responsible and still make movies we love."

Still, the industry sometimes forgets that Pascal isn't just involved with movies: She has the distinction of being the only female film company co-chair who also oversees a television division, Sony Pictures TV, whose most valuable properties include Breaking Bad and The Big C. And Sony has more than two dozen television shows on the air in primetime, syndication and cable, which translates to about a billion viewers in more than 150 countries, and a robust digital business with Imageworks and Sony Pictures Animation.

But movies remain her great love and 2012 is looking good, with another James Bond movie, the 3D Men in Black III, a new Total Recall and the still-untitled Kathryn Bigelow project about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, along with Spider-Man. The seasoned Pascal, 53, has seen it all: She has been in a senior position at Sony since the 1980s and was appointed co-chair in 2006. She also has had stints at 20th Century Fox and Turner Pictures and is remarkable for having survived at the top in a business not known for executive longevity.

She attributes her staying power to her colleagues and "an environment where people have been through good and bad — and know how to weather both."

Bonnie Hammer

"E! is a guilty pleasure … and not necessarily one people like to admit they watch." 

That was the hard-to-hear feedback newly appointed NBCUniversal cable entertainment chairman Bonnie Hammer received this summer when she commissioned a brand study among consumers on the latest addition to her portfolio, the E! network.

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

What will come next is a brand makeover, which will see the E! logo as well as the programming tone and philosophy change to reflect what Hammer hopes will be a smarter and more aspirational destination. To hear her tell it, the network best known for Kardashian fare and Ryan Seacrest's staggering paycheck has the potential to be as popular and profitable as USA became under her watch. (E! currently garners 22 cents per subscriber a month, compared to USA's 60 cents, according to SNL Kagan.)

"E! needs to be and really wants to be the pulse of popular culture," the trim and immaculately dressed Hammer says of a network she claims has grown too Hollywood-centric to be relevant to a broader audience. The next several months with her recently reconfigured team, including a new hire to move the network into scripted programming, will redefine what the network stands for. "We'll eventually get rid of the more Playboy trashy element, and elevate E! to a fun, exciting and aspirational network," she explains with her hallmark intensity, noting that a recent promo for Kourtney & Kim Take New York, which features the stars in a helicopter and black-tie attire, is evidence — albeit just a slice — of the coming class.

Of course, changing the perception of E! in an era when the Kardashians' reality genre is often considered the scourge of society (by critics mostly, mind you) sounds like an impossible mission. But Hammer is cable TV's miracle worker, an executive who transformed once-dowdy USA and too-narrow Syfy into top?5 cable networks and presided over the prized possessions Comcast coveted in its $13.8 billion deal for NBCUniversal. These days, USA, which is coming off the most watched quarter in cable history, even out-rates broadcast sibling NBC on occasion. It's no wonder she earned a top position in the post-merger reorganization and a coveted spot at No. 2 on this magazine's list (tied with Sony's Amy Pascal). Hammer's portfolio, which includes G4, Chiller, Sleuth, Universal HD and Universal Cable Productions, is poised to deliver an estimated $2 billion in profit this year, and remains the biggest contributor to NBCUniversal's bottom line.

"She's one hell of a businesswoman. She has built the most powerful cable operation in the history of television. It's not by accident," says Law & Order creator Dick Wolf, whose Criminal Intent spinoff aired on USA.

Known as a skilled — but never sleazy — corporate player, the well-liked Hammer can be both a detail-oriented manager (she'll still weigh in on color choices on USA ads) and a big-picture thinker. USA co-president Chris McCumber marvels at the collaborative work environment she's able to foster. "She has the best gut in the business," he says of a woman he considers both boss and mentor. Says NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke, "It's rare to find an executive who has both strong leadership and creative talents, but that is exactly what you get with Bonnie. She has built a terrific team and the success of her portfolio speaks for itself."

*****

The fallout from Kim Kardashian's 72-day marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries is still the dominating theme at the newsstand and on the web when Hammer sits down to lunch at Rockefeller Center's The Sea Grill on a crisp Manhattan day in late November. In recent weeks, reporters from The New York Times to People magazine have questioned the validity of the union, which commenced with a multi-million-dollar wedding showcased in a two-hour special on E! in October.

But if Hammer, 61, fears her network's most valuable franchise is in danger of unraveling, she isn't letting on. "This was not a stunt. In no way did people believe that this was going to happen," she says definitively, before adding: "I think true Kardashian fans know that a bigger than life mistake can be made easily in their world. Everything they do is bigger than life … it's just part of their DNA." (The latest season opener of Kourtney & Kim Take New York, featuring a then-married Kardashian and Humphries drew the franchise's largest premiere viewership to date.)

Still, Hammer is adamant that going forward the network not be as dependent on the Kardashians as it has been. Despite being a "beautiful" and "interesting" family, she believes the current strategy of living with only one or two franchises is "too fragile," and has ambitions of adding several more over the next couple of years.

Not that Hammer is interested in abandoning the kash kow family just yet. "I think it will have its own life expectancy," she says of the lucrative brand that the family has built on and off screen, "and we'll just go along with it and help hone what's right for E! and what's not right for E! as we develop a whole other world." Falling among the former are mom Kris Jenner's two youngest daughters — technically Jenners — and what Hammer says she hopes are "two, three, even four new Kardashian [spinoffs]."

Suzanne Kolb, promoted to E! entertainment president in July, continues to be struck by how clear and focused Hammer is on what she believes can happen and her willingness to let the team make sure it does. "She's a great mix of inspiration and empowerment for those who work for her," Kolb says of her new boss, with whom she communicates daily. "She's a master at directing people and redirecting people. She's really good at saying, 'a little to the left,' and navigating a very large ship."

In addition to the entry of scripted programming — which Hammer seems confident will help elevate the brand — she has plans to reevaluate the network's daily news program and grow its stable of hosting talent. At September's Emmy Awards, Hammer opted to monitor the red carpet coverage operation from an E! News van rather than walk the carpet in a gown herself. "The most important thing for E! to move forward is credibility, with immediacy being a close second," she adds, acknowledging the significance of being able to delve into smart news stories as well as to break news, something the current celebrity-themed news hour rarely does.

Also of appeal is broadening the network's purview so that it isn't so narrowly focused on Hollywood. It will still be about celebrity, but as Hammer sees it, her viewers will be drawn to people who have done extraordinary things, whether in Atlanta, Nashville or Paris, and her plan is to bring E!'s cameras to them. "One of the first things we'll do," she says, "is to expand beyond the confines of how Hollywood defines celebrity, trends and aspiration."

*****

Hammer's own aspirations were formed in Queens, where she was raised the youngest of three children. While her late father, who started his own pen manufacturing company in the family's garage, remains Hammer's role model, it was her many summers at sleepaway camp in upstate New York that she says prepared her for the team-oriented environment she's been able to build at the office. Her father taught her not to take no for an answer, a quality she admits she employs not only in the workplace but also at hotels, restaurants and stores. "As long as you do it classily and nicely, you can get anything you want," Hammer says with a light laugh.

After toying with careers in law and psychology, Hammer graduated from Boston University with a degree in photojournalism. From there, she talked her way into a graduate program in media and technology, before landing her first industry gig working as a production assistant on Boston PBS station WGBH's Infinity Factory. As she recalls, the role included picking up after a sheepdog. "We all had to look after a cast member," she says, "and since I was the youngest and greenest PA they gave me the dog."

By 1986, she had gained experience on a handful of series and took an executive gig at Lifetime, where she focused primarily on socially conscious documentaries. Three years later, she was offered a programming position at USA, then jointly owned by Paramount and MCA/Universal, where a superior handed her the reins to what is now the World Wrestling Entertainment franchise. "I remember sitting in one of the early video conferences when Rod Perth said to me, 'Bonnie, I need you to take over the WWF. There needs to be some story there; it's all just big blowups and fighting,' " she recalls of a programming block she had little interest in. "I looked at him and said, 'Rod, are you crazy?' I'm pretty sure I flipped him the bird in the middle of the meeting, and then went home to my husband and threatened to quit."

On her husband's advice, Hammer spent the next few weeks familiarizing herself with the brand before showing up at imposing wrestling chief Vince McMahon's office. As the petite executive remembers it, she dressed down in boots and blue jeans, walked in and said, "Listen, up until two weeks ago, I never watched your show. I don't know what your business is, and I don't care what your business is. The only thing I know is how to make good TV."

She proved as much, working closely with McMahon and his team to find stories and characters that viewers could invest in. During the Monday live shows, she'd be on the phone with the crew telling them what they should show and, in the case of one character taking a machete to another's genitals, when they needed to cut to black. The following mornings she'd be on the phone with McMahon discussing notes and soaring ratings. Nearly two decades later, Hammer calls the experience one of the most enjoyable of her career.

Soon after, larger-than-life mogul Barry Diller took over, and Hammer insists one of the only reasons he kept her in the job was because of her wrestling ties. "I think he thought it was kind of funny that a girl could deal with Vince McMahon," she says. By 2001, Hammer was upped to president of Syfy (then Sci Fi Channel), and while she had spent much of her youth devouring science fiction books, she made it her mission to broaden the network beyond its core sci-fi audience. Hammer did so, bringing the network from a ranking in the high 20s to the top 10 on the back of such fare as her $40 million Steven Spielberg miniseries Taken, which debuted to Emmy acclaim in 2002. It was also that project, which cost another $10 million or so to market, that ultimately gave Hammer a career-altering boost from Diller, whom she counts among her mentors.

With the team around her doubting her instincts — and sniping at the show's harrowing price tag — Hammer sent an episode to Diller for review and reassurance. His response, in an e-mail with bright orange, 18 or 20 point type: "Honey, if all your episodes are as gluely compelling, I think you have a hit on your hands. Ignore the world." So, she recalls, "we held our nose and jumped. It was the highest-rated limited series not just for Syfy, but ever on cable." To this day, the e-mail remains in a special folder on Hammer's computer.

In 2004, she returned to USA as president, commissioning a brand audit that revealed what she had feared about the network. "What we heard back was that USA was like an old, worn-out shoe, and I wanted it to be a Louboutin," she says, her personal style in keeping with the latter. In her attempt to revitalize the network, she honed in on character and an upbeat "blue skies" philosophy, green-lighting shows including Burn Notice, Royal Pains and recent effort Suits. The logo changed with it: no more American flag; no more capital letters. "We made it more relatable and accessible," she explains, not to mention more popular and profitable. USA has now been the No. 1 cable network for five consecutive years and is also the most lucrative in NBCUniversal's stable.

Among the professional qualities USA's McCumber is most impressed by is Hammer's savvy management style, which doesn't allow for silos. "If we're talking about developing a show, each one of us from marketing to programming to ad sales will read the scripts and talk about casting," he says of the unique approach where every member of the team is invested. "This way, when we win, we win together; and when we lose, there's no pointing figures because we all made the decisions together."

Hammer's vision has garnered fans in the creative community. The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman, who has two shows on USA in Covert Affairs and Suits, likens Hammer to a modern-day Jack Warner. "In the olden days, when a filmmaker went to work for a studio, they worked for a place that had a strong identity and a very powerful leader. The end result is these enduring movies that filmmakers like myself today are trying to figure out how to make," he says. "At USA, Bonnie has created a version of that."

*****

These days, the married mother of two — son Jesse, 18, and daughter Ki Mae, 31 — is getting used to her new status as a chairman and an empty nester. (Jesse is currently at Dartmouth, where Ki Mae and husband Dale are alumni.) Both have been major adjustments: the former because she's had to learn to be arms length after a lengthy career of being precisely the opposite; the latter because she's spent the last two decades living in tony Westport, Conn., where she's primarily known as "Jesse's mom."

Looking to the future, Hammer's goals are no longer about acquiring more networks to run, but rather about exploring new mediums. "There's a bit of quiet wisdom that comes when you're not a newbie at this. You become a lot more comfortable with yourself and you're no longer climbing," says Hammer. As skaters whiz by at the nearby Rockefeller Center rink, she opens up about all of the other things that she's been quietly itching to do, including yoga, a fitting fitness routine for someone who historically has found activities to reflect her life state. (During her stint under Diller, she took up kick-boxing, where her six-foot bag had his name as a strike target.)

There's also a tongue-in-cheek book that she's been toying with writing for women coming up in the entertainment industry, along with a movie. "I've not had any interest in running a movie studio, but I want to make one feature film," she declares as a plate of berries arrives for dessert. She hasn't come across the right property yet, but says she's thinking something "upbeat and aspirational," a movie along the lines of Field of Dreams or Forrest Gump that leaves people feeling hope. She continues, "Something that's fun, a little twisted and out there, and even a bit provocative but has humor and resonates."

She takes a beat, before adding, "It's just something that I've always wanted to do." To know Hammer, who has made a career out of turning desire into reality, is to know she will.

Abbe Raven

Raven takes the commuter rail back and forth between her Manhattan office and her home in suburban Westchester County. And while she admits to whiling away some of that time playing Scrabble with friends on her iPad, she also uses it as an opportunity to observe the media consumption habits of her fellow Metro-North passengers.

"That's been a real laboratory for me," she says. "The proliferation of iPads on the train is astounding. I get to see what people who are not in our industry are doing, what apps they're using, how they're using technology, what they're watching on their devices."

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

Raven isn't the only one doing the observing. If she's watching some of the programming on her own networks, "the conductor will stop and say, 'Oh, I love Pawn Stars,' " she says. Or if she's carrying a shoulder bag with the A&E or History logos, people will inevitably inquire as to where she got it. "I just say 'I work there,' " she says.

If such evidence is purely anecdotal, there is also plenty of empirical data attesting to the broad appeal and global reach of the networks in her portfolio. A+E Networks — which includes A&E and History, Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Channel, Bio, Military History, Crime & Investigation and History En Español — reach more than 300 million households in 150 countries.

For the third quarter, History and A&E were the only cable networks to experience double-digit ratings growth in the channels' target demographic of ages 25 to 54 (History was ranked No. 2 for the quarter, and A&E came in at No. 5). Already players in the international market, History recently launched in India — in six languages. "In the factual entertainment space, we are the No. 1 or No. 2 network in many countries," Raven says. "History has now surpassed Discovery as the No. 1 nonfiction brand around the world."

Raven, 58, has been with the company for 29 years, joining in 1982 as a production assistant at Daytime & Arts, which became Arts & Entertainment, the early incarnation of A&E. She moved up through the executive ranks and was promoted to president and CEO in 2005.

Raven is unassuming and quick to share credit ("I have an incredible management team," she says), and her longevity is an anomaly in a business where a revolving executive-suite door is the norm. "I started at the bottom," she says. "I'm very proud of that."

Dana Walden

Of all the primetime shows that debuted this fall, the one that likely got the most press was Fox's New Girl. Granted, the opportunity to chat with the dweebishly adorable Zooey Deschanel would be tough for any journalist to pass up, but there's also the matter of 20th Century Fox Television chairman Walden, who greenlighted the series, added it to the company's stable of successes (from The X-Files and 24 to Glee and Modern Family), and comes from a background in PR.

"I always draw on my experience as a publicist," says the 47-year-old married mom of two. "It enabled me to see the whole business, which many of my peers who came up through development and creative paths didn't get to see. There's a trick to telling a story and sending your message. Some people have the gift and some do not."

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

Walden most certainly does. A 19-year veteran of the studio, she, along with fellow chairman Gary Newman, has three presidents reporting to her, some 236 staffers under them, and another 5,900 on the payroll when you count actors, producers and crew members spread out among 34 shows in production. They include the Emmy-winning Modern Family, ratings leader How I Met Your Mother, Ryan Murphy's latest creation, American Horror Story, and the Steven Spielberg-produced Terra Nova.

Twentieth is also behind Tim Allen's return to alpha male dominance in the ABC sitcom Last Man Standing. And, of course, there's Glee, which regularly puts Walden's crisis management skills to the test.

So is there a DEFCON system for Glee scandals? Say, level 2 for a song leak, 3 for a casting change, 5 for a Murphy-slung insult? "Glee emergencies are high-class problems," she laughs. "Peter Chernin, who was a great influence on me, always said if you play it safe, you're destined for failure. Big, bold ideas are what excite me."

Stacey Snider

Dreamworks was fully back in the game this year: having moved its base of operations to Disney and with new financing from India's Reliance, the recharged studio began rolling out a fresh slate of films. Initial titles like I Am Number Four and Fright Night stumbled, and the genre-defying summer release Cowboys & Aliens, on which the company partnered with Universal and Relativity, proved a pricey ($160 million) disappointment ($175 million worldwide).

"The filmmakers strove to make an original, unbranded, 'twisty' film — and both studios brought their best efforts to the endeavor, but sometimes your reach exceeds your grasp," Snider, 50, says. In its wake, the studio resorted to some belt-tightening. But Real Steel, another action fantasy released in the fall, has shown more muscle, as it's climbed to $252 million worldwide.

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

And her biggest hit domestically also was one of her riskiest calls: The Help. Snider loved Kathryn Stockett's novel and Tate Taylor's screenplay and decided to take a chance on the relatively untested director. As a mom — she and her husband, music producer Gary Jones, have two daughters — Snider had relied on help herself and related to the material, which also struck a chord with audiences, who contributed to a domestic take of nearly $200 million.

"The movie's resonance with audiences was more than we could have imagined," she says, calling the movie "one of those never-to-be-forgotten life experiences."

While her DreamWorks partner Steven Spielberg has most recently been off filming Lincoln, the studio is now readying the Christmas release of his World War I saga War Horse. "The early reactions have been incredibly gratifying," Snider says of the movie that, along with The Help, is expected to contend throughout awards season.

Nina Tassler

Ask Two Broke Girls creator Michael Patrick King to come up with a great anecdote about Nina Tassler, and he'll ask you to give him a moment as he gives it some thought. It's been only six months since the CBS entertainment president picked up his comedy, and he's still proving to her that it belongs on a schedule of long-running hits from the CSI shows to The Big Bang Theory. "Let's see," the producer says, buying time by hurling adjectives you hear often about Tassler: "smart," "maternal," "passionate."

And then, bam — he has it: "Nina had the balls to fire a horse."

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

The horse, in this case, is Chestnut, a vestige of the former life of one his "broke girls," the now penniless daughter of a Bernie Madoff type. King had cast a blond buckskin, more fitting for Westerns, which was waiting for its scene when Tassler came to set for a run-though. The native New Yorker, who grew up riding, knew the equine actor had been miscast.

"That horse wasn't the kind they kept at the Central Park stables," says Tassler. So she saw to it that her promising freshman comedy recast the horse, hiring a more appropriate, chocolate-colored thoroughbred.

Tassler keeps a replica of the horse propped up in her office, as much a reminder of her past as it is indicative of her hands-on style that has helped make CBS the most-watched network for eight of the past nine seasons. Now, in a fall that was supposed to be upended by casting overhauls — Ashton Kutcher replacing Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men and Ted Danson in for Laurence Fishburne on CSI — CBS has managed to lure more viewers than any of its broadcast rivals, actually growing its audience in a shrinking network environment. Two months in, CBS can claim 12 of the top 15 scripted shows and is the first since 2002 to have the No. 1 comedy (Men), No. 1 drama (NCIS) and No. 1 new series (Two Broke Girls) among the prized 18-to-49 demo, putting to rest the perception of CBS as just a place for the senior set. New entries like Unforgettable were quickly granted full seasons, and Men became the first comedy in a decade to rank as the No. 1 program four weeks into the season.

Tassler, 54, credits Kutcher's social-media fan base along with creator Chuck Lorre's creative ingenuity for Men's renewed strength, preferring to leave the conversation there for fear of having to delve into the still uncomfortable, and tired, topic of Sheen. "We turned disaster into success, and she had a lot to do with it," says her boss, Leslie Moonves. In fact, it was Tassler who had a longtime relationship with Kutcher's lawyer, Robert Offer, and put the deal in motion.

In recent months, Tassler's hands have been all over CSI, first as the show was recasting Fishburne's part and then as it was setting up Elisabeth Shue to step in for Marg Helgenberger later this season. "Nina is in that trench with you making decisions if not in body, in spirit — though most of the time in body too," says CSI showrunner Carol Mendelsohn. "If you come in with a great idea, there's nobody more passionate than she is."

Tassler loved the arts before she knew there was a business in show business. As the daughter of a Jewish father and a Catholic Puerto Rican mother raised in a quiet dairy farm community in upstate New York, where her parents ran a sleepaway camp, she was drawn to the theater. "It felt like an environment where you didn't have to fit a mold," says Tassler, the oldest of three kids.

Upon graduating with a theater major from Boston University, Tassler moved to Manhattan to become an actor. In between auditions, she got a taste for the business at the Roundabout Theater Company. She remained there until her husband, Jerry Levine, whom she has been with since she was 18, landed a part in the film Teen Wolf. The married couple soon moved to Los Angeles, where she struggled initially to find work. (Today, Tassler and Levine have a 23-year-old son, a 13-year-old daughter and a close-knit family who have followed them west.)

In the mid-'80s, a young Tassler scored an assistant gig at the Irv Schechter Agency, where she rose to become an agent before making the leap to the bigger Triad Artists. "I had this crisis. 'What do I do? Oh, my God. I'll never be an actress. My career's over,' " Tassler recalls. "My husband said, 'Play the hand you're dealt. If you want to be in the business, take whatever job you can get.' " She did, amassing a portfolio of clients that included Tony Curtis, Victoria Principal and Meredith Baxter, before deciding she wanted a job where she got to stay with the material.

In what would begin a two-plus decade creative partnership, Tassler put all of her effort into securing a position at Lorimar Television, now Warner Bros., where Moonves was in charge. "I began a full-scale assault on Leslie and everybody at Lorimar to get me a job — everything short of someone having me arrested," Tassler says, chuckling at her own chutzpah.

Moonves was struck by her persistence. "I'd already decided she was someone I wanted to have on my team, but she had 50 people call me. Finally, I said, 'All right, I'm going to hire you, now please tell them to stop, I have a job to do,' " he says. "Hiring her was one of the best moves I ever made." Tassler remained there from 1990 to 1996, working on series like ER before following her boss and mentor to turn around a then ailing CBS.

When the pair arrived at CBS, Moonves a year or two ahead of Tassler, the network had lost the NFL and its average viewer was well outside the 18-49 demo. But by 2001, Moonves, then entertainment president, had Survivor and the Tassler-developed CSI, which catapulted CBS to No. 1  on Thursday, TV's most lucrative night. From there, Moonves and Tassler, head of drama development at the time, continued to add series — Without a Trace, Cold Case, NCIS and a suite of CSI spinoffs — and viewers.

Today, as the biz's longest-running network chief — the petite Tassler took the reins as entertainment president in 2004 — she presides over a pair of billion-dollar franchises, NCIS and CSI, and the kind of ratings consistency that makes her the envy of the industry. Even the knock on the CBS lineup as a somewhat formulaic schedule of broad-based comedies and down-the-middle procedurals is a backhanded compliment given the results it yields.

Still, there are genres she'd love to try — or in some cases, try again. Among them: musicals, Westerns, performance-based reality shows and a drama with a young female voice. "Science fiction is something I'd love to find a way to do so our audience could really embrace it … Oh, and I'd love to try a funny hourlong comedy," she says, overcome with enthusiasm.

Sitting beside the executive as her wheels spin with ideas, it's easy to imagine all of the trenches Tassler has yet to dive into. No matter what comes at her, she declares, "I'm still standing. Like I always say, 'I'll stop when I'm dead.' "

Donna Langley

This year Langley had her contract with Universal extended a year early through 2014 and domestic box-office revenue is up 28 percent from 2010. That's not bad personally and professionally, but the studio co-chairman says, "I'm looking forward to proving we can fully turn the studio around and be more consistent."

Universal's year has had its ups and downs. The biggest up was Fast Five and Bridesmaids was a surprise success. The not-so-ups included The Dilemma and The Thing. "We've had some success, but not full success," says Langley, 43. "I'll feel better when we've proven we can accomplish what we've said we can accomplish."

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

Langley's path to being a studio head is more colorful than the norm. She was born in Staines, England and took a chance on coming to America 20 years ago "to work in production somewhere." Through a fellow Brit, she found work as a hostess at the hot '80s club Roxbury, where she met Mike DeLuca. He got her a job at New Line.

She considers DeLuca and Mary Parent, who helped her come to Universal, her mentors. "The thing I admire about Mike is he's able to stay connected to his gut instinct," says Langley. "And his batting average is as good or better as the people doing more traditional number crunching."

At the moment, Langley is on maternity leave. Her second child, a boy, was born Oct. 19. "The thing I learned from the first one is your leave should really start just as you're coming back," she says. "The first three months are routine — feeding, burping and eating. It's when they're 6 months old they become really interesting and that's when you don't want to leave them."

Nancy Dubuc

Dubuc takes one cold-call meeting a month with industry aspirants who reach out to her via email. (Apologies for opening the floodgates by publicizing these random acts of generosity.) This speaks to Dubuc's work ethic while also revealing a walk-the-walk dedication to mentoring that is unusual in an industry where those who have climbed the ladder often pull it up behind them. "We all came from somewhere and it's very easy to forget that," Dubuc says. "Every industry lives on the learning of the previous generation. And I think we need to take that responsibility more seriously."

Dubuc, 42, a married mother of a 5-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son, has had some teachable moments of her own this year. What was to be History's first scripted project — the big-budget and star-studded The Kennedys — was jettisoned after pressure from the Kennedy family. Dubuc acknowledges that the controversy got the "lion's share of media attention." But, she says, "as a leader you have to keep pushing your team and your business forward. I learned that you can't let one show or a few negative stories stand in the way of your overall vision for the business."

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

The much less controversial miniseries The Hatfields and McCoys, starring Kevin Costner, will bow next year on History.

And Dubuc is still attempting to rebuild Lifetime, which became part of her portfolio last May. The network is ranked No. 6 among its core viewership of women 25–54. But Dubuc would like to see it become the powerhouse that History is: double-digit year-over-year ratings growth, ranking among cable's top four networks in all key demographics (viewers 18–49 and 25–54 and men 18–49 and 25–54), and on track to end the year with its highest-rated primetime ever thanks to the continued success of shows like Pawn Stars, American Pickers and Swamp People.

Lifetime has a flurry of projects in the pipeline including the Renee Zellweger–produced Cinnamon Girl (set in the 1960s and based on the actress' journey from small-town Texas to Hollywood) and the Jennifer Love Hewitt drama The Client List (about a homemaker-turned-prostitute), which is set to bow in 2012. These projects come on the heels of the breast-cancer anthology Five, which bowed in October and featured short films directed by Jennifer Aniston, Alicia Keys and Demi Moore. Five may not have burned up the ratings charts, but Dubuc says she "gravitated to it because — and this is no disrespect to any of the organizations that have fought so hard to eradicate this disease — it was a project that didn't come from a 'pink-ribbon' point of view."

To that end, Dubuc and her team have spent considerable energy dispelling calcified notions among those in the creative community about what a Lifetime project should be. "As soon as you say, 'This is right for Lifetime,' it's not right for Lifetime," she says. "I know what the backend of that sentence really means. We want to be vying for the greatest creative projects available in town that speak to our audience and the audience that we want to attract."

Sue Kroll

Just before Thanksgiving, Kroll found herself in London on business, so she decided to stay abroad through the holiday and see friends. "My time is not my own," she confides. That's an understatement, considering she runs global marketing for the most prolific studio in Hollywood — and one of the most successful.

So far, Warner Bros. has bragging rights to the top movie of 2011, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which grossed $1.32 billion worldwide, the best of any film in the blockbuster franchise. "The opportunity to work on that film was amazing, but I also think there's been a lot of interesting things that weren't so obvious," says Kroll.

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

In particular, she notes the strong branding campaign for R-rated comedy Horrible Bosses, which paired each of the three employees with their respective bosses, as well as coming up with a color palette for each. "To me, it's more than movie marketing. It's really about getting in there and bringing the concept to life in a way that people can relate to and remember," she says.

She's also especially proud of the campaigns for Crazy Stupid Love and Steven Soderbergh's Contagion, which became a surprise box office hit. "Contagion was amazing, and it was about tapping into people's worst fears," says Kroll, adding that the decision to feature Gwyneth Paltrow's terrified and ailing character on a one-sheet was "unusual and audacious."

Kroll's power base is substantial, and she sits on the studio's greenlight committee. If she doesn't think a movie will work from a marketing perspective, she can vote no. The married Kroll has a truly global view, having been president of international marketing before becoming worldwide marketing president in 2008. She says: "Watching a project evolve and working on the marketing is the best job in the industry."

Lauren Zalaznick

In January, Zalaznick's NBCUniversal portfolio — which already included Bravo, Oxygen and iVillage, as well as multiple company-wide initiatives (Green Is Universal, Women at NBCUniversal) — expanded significantly. With the Comcast merger, she added oversight of Style, mun2, PBS Sprout, Spanish language broadcaster Telemundo and digital destinations DailyCandy, Swirl and Fandango. If you're counting, that's five cable networks, one broadcaster and four digital properties — and Zalaznick still manages the integrated strategic marketing group, which includes those aforementioned initiatives.

This year, Bravo will notch its sixth consecutive best year ever among all key demos on the strength of the resilient Real Housewives and Top Chef franchises and Style is on track to deliver its most-watched season ever. If Oxygen has seen its ratings plateau after years of steady growth, The Glee Project has at least brought younger viewers to the network. The forward-looking growth strategy for the clutch of cable channels is "more good original content. Period," Zalaznick says. "It's very clear. It's also very tough," she adds. "But it's not like we're in a cloud, don't know what to do, hair on fire. We know what to do."

THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

To that end, Zalaznick, 48, says all three networks will see a lot more original programming hours in 2012. And Telemundo, which also will hit a high-ratings mark this year, will get thousands of hours of valuable sports programming beginning in 2015 with the addition of FIFA World Cup soccer in a $625 million deal (it outbid incumbent and top-rated Spanish-language broadcaster Univision for the rights). Live sports are the holy grail in an increasingly time-shifted and streaming television universe. (Zalaznick characterizes the World Cup acquisition as "a very big deal.") And it's not just a boost for Telemundo, which will get the marquee events, but also for younger-skewing bilingual network mun2, which also will see some World Cup programming.

Her demanding professional responsibilities do not leave room for much downtime, though she likes to read novels. She's reading Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography, recently "powered through" Jeffrey Eugenides' Brown University–set The Marriage Plot (she's an alum of the school) and has purchased — but hasn't yet dug into — the 900-plus-page 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.

What little leisure time she has helps her focus. "There are really only two things: You're at work or you're at home with your family," says Zalaznick, who lives in Manhattan's Greenwich Village with her husband, two teenage daughters and a 9-year-old son.

Veronika Kwan-Rubinek

Last year, Warner Bros. International took in $2.93 billion at the foreign box office, setting a record and beating all major studios. And this year, Kwan-Rubinek expects revenues to cross $3 billion. "I am very proud that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 grossed $953 million internationally — 44 percent higher than the last film. And it secured the biggest international opening of all time, $313.5?million from 59 countries," she says.

Kwan-Rubinek also enjoyed huge success with The Hangover Part II, which earned $331 million offshore (73?percent more than the original) to become the top R-rated comedy of all time.

THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

The nature of her job means she's constantly criss-crossing the globe, with Europe her most frequented region. "Traveling gets harder as you get older, but I truly enjoy it," says Kwan-Rubinek, 48, who recently remarried and relocated from Encino to Santa Monica with her 13-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter. "The commute is a little longer, but I just love coming home."

Megan Colligan

Colligan has rocketed up the food chain to become one of Hollywood's marketing stars. She rose up through the studio specialty ranks, working at Miramax and Fox Searchlight before joining Paramount Vantage in 2005, where she helped land the rights to Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth featuring Al Gore. Years earlier, Colligan had worked for a nonprofit public relations firm in Washington and assisted on Gore's presidential campaign.

In 2008, Colligan, 38, joined the studio big leagues when she was named co-president of domestic marketing for Paramount. She and fellow co-president Josh Greenstein quickly impressed with their campaigns and are having another banner year, successfully launching Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, as well as the third installment in the Transformers franchise and original tentpole Super 8. "The summer was very satisfying. We had really big movies with complicated challenges, and our team rose to the occasion," says Colligan, who is now preparing for Christmas tentpole Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol in addition to a busy awards season. "The structure of Paramount is such that we do all kinds of movies, and it makes for a very creative process," she says.

THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

This fall, Colligan was promoted to president of domestic marketing and distribution, an unusual blend, since distribution and marketing are usually parallel operations. Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore credits Colligan for coming up with innovative distribution strategies, such as for the first Paranormal Activity. "Distribution is something I've always taken an interest in, and I feel very lucky," she says.

Colligan has three young sons and is married to Mark Roybal, the former president of Scott Rudin Productions who now runs Indian Paintbrush. The couple met while attending Harvard. "I was an investment banker right out of college," says Colligan, "but I quickly became jealous of these people with cool jobs in film and politics."

Nikki Rocco

Rocco knows a thing or two about the transition to digital media. An avid cookbook collector — she inherited a cache of them from her mother — she has found herself giving away more and more of them lately. "I'm addicted to going online now," she says.

During her all-encompassing day job as Universal's head of distribution, she also finds herself right in the middle of that larger transition as theaters have moved from analog prints to digital projection. "Physically, it makes delivery easier, less mishaps," she says, but it has put her in a tricky position at times with the theater owners who are her primary customers.

THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

In October, Universal announced an early VOD test offering of Tower Heist, but theater chains threatened not to book the movie, forcing the studio to back down. "My main responsibility is to bring in as much revenue as I can, and the only way I can do that is to maintain great relationships with my customers," she says. "We try to work as partners and in the digital world, we see opportunities and we eventually have to convince exhibition to be our partners there. With Tower Heist, we may have lost the battle, but we haven't lost the war."

While her year got off to a slow start — movies like The Dilemma disappointed — it picked up when Fast Five topped $200 million, in part due to a well-timed April release in advance of the summer crush. And it hit a high point with Bridesmaids, which defied all expectations on its way to $169 million domestic.

Says Rocco, 62, who lives in Calabasas with her husband, Joseph, a retired financial planner, "It's always a pleasure to release a film that is a total surprise. It just held on from week to week, and there is nothing better than that for a distributor."

Kathleen Kennedy

A key member of Steven Spielberg's inner circle since 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, Kennedy has spent the past three years firmly ensconced in the director's creative camp. The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, which hits theaters right before Christmas through Paramount, represents their first big foray into 3D and animation.

Right behind that is the adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's World War I novel War Horse, which will open Christmas Day, while the Spielberg-directed Lincoln films through the end of the year. These last two projects are Disney releases produced by the reconstituted DreamWorks Studios, where Kennedy, 58, and her producing partner and husband, Frank Marshall, just signed a one-year first-look deal that may include the Peter Jackson-directed, Spielberg-produced Tintin sequel.

THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

Sue Naegle

Naegle and HBO have been on a roll lately. Last year's freshman series Boardwalk Empire won a Golden Globe for best dramatic series. Emmy season saw the network earn a whopping 104 nominations and 19 wins. And 2012 will see the long-awaited debut of Luck, the David Milch-Michael Mann horse-racing drama starring Dustin Hoffman. "David wrote a beautiful script," says Naegle, "and Michael shot the hell out of it."

She says the show will fit nicely within a lineup that ranges from fantasy (Game of Thrones) to bawdy (Hung). "We have a lot of different colors on the palette," says Naegle, 42. "Not every single viewer watches every show. But the ones they watch should be their favorite shows."

THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

Also slated for HBO is Girls, the Lena Dunham, Judd Apatow-produced vehicle about twentysomething women in New York; an as-yet-untitled cable news drama from Aaron Sorkin; and Veep, a D.C.-set comedy series starring Julia Louis-Dreyfuss. "I like the idea that viewers can't describe our lineup too easily," she says. "But they could say all our shows are very good."

Naegle's journey to HBO started directly from UTA. And while the jobs of agent and exec exist on two different planes, there is obvious overlap. "There's a degree of buying and selling even in my job," she says. "You have to be a strong advocate of the shows you believe in. Sometimes those skills are very similar to agenting." And while being an advocate is one job skill, the most important to her is working with the writers. "Most development doesn't make it to series," says the exec. "So you want the writer and director to have a really good experience with development because, if it doesn't work out, you want to work with them again. You have to know their work really well, know the drafts really well, and when you give notes, you need to have really thought them through."

Naegle applies the same level of commitment to her family life with comedy-writer husband Dana Gould and their three young daughters.

Ann Daly

Call it "the panda effect": Thanks to Kung Fu Panda 2's $663 million in worldwide box office receipts — the highest-grossing animated film of the year (and fourth film overall) — Daly is riding high. Further boosting her mood is the robust business of Puss in Boots, which has amassed $198 million worldwide since its Oct. 28 opening. "Even in a tough operating environment, we are really proud of Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots," says Daly, 55. "We will continue to build these properties as character franchises."

Daly is responsible for DWA's day-to-day operations, and her ability to steer the company toward success stems from her years in the business, which began in 1983, when the UCLA grad joined the home entertainment division of the Walt Disney Co. "Through my experience at Disney, I started to appreciate and understand animation filmmaking as an art form," she says.

THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

Her passion for animation grew when, in 1997, Jeffrey Katzenberg asked her to head the feature animation department of DreamWorks Animation, then in its infancy. In October 2004, she assumed her current post where she is also charged with fostering a creative environment at DWA's verdant campus-like Glendale headquarters. "The campus, in a crazy way, facilitates conversations and helps the creative collaborations," Daly says. "You hang out at breakfast, you hang out at lunch, people can sit in an environment where it's not completely office-y."

Daly, who is married, has high hopes for the third installment of the Madagascar franchise, coming out in June. She's also excited about DWA's recent acquisition of the best-selling kids book series Captain Underpants ("We were just so thrilled to make that deal," she says) and has been keeping busy flying to Australia — actually a treat for the travel-loving exec — to monitor the progress of one of DreamWorks Animation's latest ventures, a live arena show based on last year's hit How to Train Your Dragon. The production, created and produced by Aussie company Global Creatures (Walking With Dinosaurs), premieres Down Under in March before going on a worldwide tour. Says Daly: "The animatronic dragons they are creating are just spectacular."

Emma Watts

Watts turned out two of the most critically acclaimed studio tentpoles of the year: X-Men: First Class and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Both prequels defied the naysayers and revived key franchises.

Rupert Wyatt's Planet of the Apes earned $476.4 million worldwide, and Matthew Vaughn's First Class grossed $353.6 million. "I work really hard up until the last moment to give directors everything they need. I work for the movies first and foremost, and it's a hell of a lot easier when you have great filmmakers," Watts, 41, says.

THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

Her sophisticated if slightly bookish style is reflected in her movies, as is her penchant for working with up-and-coming directors. Born in England, Watts moved to Canada when she was 5 years old with her mother, a nurse's union rep, and her father, a management consultant. She got her start working with the late photographer Herb Ritts on music videos and later became a production executive at Oliver Stone's shop, where she spent 14 years, working on films including U-Turn (1997) and Any Given Sunday (1999). (Stone and Watts were recently reunited when Fox made Stone's sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.)

Watts arrived at Fox as a creative executive and quickly rose through the ranks. She's got a lot to manage these days, between her job and two small children, a 6-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter (her husband, Jonathan Krauss, also is in the biz and works for Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski). "The juggle is substantial, but it makes you better at everything," she says.

In the early evening, Watts enforces a BlackBerry-free zone so as to spend uninterrupted time with her kids. "Once they go to bed, the Berry is back on and the scripts come out."

At work, she's gearing up for the studio's next big release: Cameron Crowe's buzzy Christmas family film We Bought a Zoo, starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson.

Jennifer Salke

"I left Fox on a really high note," Salke says of her decision to exit the thriving studio (responsible for such hits as Glee, Modern Family and New Girl) for an executive role at the fourth-place network this summer. The draw, she says, was the opportunity to "take on this challenge" with her old friend Bob Greenblatt, who took the reins of NBC Entertainment in January.

Salke has spent the better part of the past four months listening to roughly 10 pitches per day, looking for creators who have a singular — and often deeply personal — vision the way Glee's Ryan Murphy, New Girl's Liz Meriwether and Modern Family's Steve Levitan and Chris Lloyd did when they pitched their respective projects to 20th Century Fox TV. "I'm really looking forward to bringing some of that success here because it's much needed," she says, a reference to NBC's continued ratings woes, which weren't helped by the failure of this fall's The Playboy Club.

THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

Daunting as it may be, though, NBC's challenge fits squarely into Salke's longtime passion for the entertainment business, which began in earnest when she was an undergraduate at NYU, where  she double majored in economics and writing for film and television. "It was kind of a funny left brain, right brain kind of thing," says Salke, 47, about her ongoing desire to merge the creative with the commercial.

These days, when she isn't sinking her teeth into scripts or production notes, the Los Angeles native likes to hit the ski slopes with her family in Deer Valley, Utah. The mother of three recently bought a home there with husband Bert, who runs the 20th offshoot Fox 21.

Oprah Winfrey

It's been a rough year for the long-reigning queen of daytime television. Since wrapping her daily talk show May 25, a quarter-century after it launched, Winfrey, 57, has been consumed with OWN, The Oprah Winfrey Network, which she created in association with Discovery Communications. And so far the results have been less than desirable, even after Winfrey personally seized the reins when she named herself CEO and chief creative officer in July. Numerous reruns and shows hosted by friends such as Gayle King and Rosie O'Donnell have failed to catch fire. Indeed, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, which debuted in August to almost half a million viewers, has been dropping steadily since its bow. It averaged only 185,000 viewers in the week ending Nov. 6, according to Nielsen.

Other programming, including the Sarah Ferguson endeavor Finding Sarah and a misguided reality show with Ryan and Tatum O'Neal, flopped. The channel, into which Discovery has poured an estimated quarter-billion dollars, is averaging slightly more than 200,000 viewers a day in primetime — leaving it ranked No. 53 among basic cable channels.

THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

None of this has been helped by Winfrey's problems finding the right person to help her run OWN, which saw CEO Christina Norman exit in May to be replaced by Peter Liguori on an interim basis — only for him to announce in early November he'd be leaving by the end of the year. In the midst of this, it's ironic that Winfrey's BFF, King, has seen her own star rise, joining Charlie Rose as a host of CBS' revamped Early Show and therefore exiting her friend's network.

Winfrey's future might now depend on her return to a regular program with Oprah's Next Chapter, scheduled to launch 9 p.m. Jan. 1 with Aerosmith frontman and American Idol judge Steven Tyler as the first guest. Unlike her erstwhile talk show, this one will see Winfrey out of the studio roaming the world, even visiting the likes of Sean Penn as he continues earthquake-relief efforts in Haiti. But that show will likely be weekly or biweekly at best, leaving huge holes of programming to fill. Winfrey no doubt is committed to filling them better, and fast, or she may have the kind of "Aha!" moment she dreads.

Michele Ganeless

If there's anything to glean from the decor in michele ganeless' office, it's that, even after nearly two decades at Comedy Central, she's still its biggest fan.

Her corner space at the company's headquarters in Lower Manhattan is a shrine to the brand. The assemblage of tchotchkes includes a bag of Cheesy Poofs, South Park snarkmeister Cartman's favorite snack, and a number of items related to her Northwestern University classmate Stephen Colbert, including a bobblehead and a blowup of Colbert and Jon Stewart on the cover of Rolling Stone in 2006.

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

She was at the National Mall in October with more than 200,000 others for Stewart and Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. She was among the guests at the Broadway opening of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Tony-winning musical The Book of Mormon. And she has spent many an afternoon in the audience at The Daily Show and The Colbert Report — though with a 3½-year-old daughter at home, she has had to curtail that somewhat. "I can't go as regularly now because they tape right around dinner and bath time," Ganeless admits.

Her most important job, as she sees it, is to enable the subversive brilliance of her stars. "We want people who have their finger on the zeitgeist," she says. "And we give them the creative freedom that not a lot of places will give them."

Once a stepping stone (original Daily Show host Craig Kilborn left for The Late Late Show on CBS, and ABC poached Bill Maher and Politically Incorrect), Comedy Central is now a destination for comedians. Last year, the network signed contract extensions with Stewart and Colbert through June 2013. And on Nov. 16, Comedy Central renewed South Park for three more seasons, keeping the show that began in 1997 on the air until at least 2016.

"My job is to create the right environment so they want to come work here. And that is an open environment that rewards creativity and is very hands-off," she says. "I do not manage Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert or Daniel Tosh. We identify talent that has a very singular point of view, and we give them a platform to do their thing."

Their thing, of course, includes lampooning sacred cows, which can mean alienating religious leaders, decency watchdogs and sometimes even Hollywood A-listers. "I don't feel like they would ever hang us out to dry," says South Park executive producer Anne Garefino. "We're good partners. And Michele is the point person for all of that. I feel like we're all on the same team."

Ganeless, 46, herself stands in contrast to the riot of sometimes-puerile guy humor that abounds at Comedy Central, which targets men ages 18 to 34. On this unseasonably warm early November afternoon, she wears a simple black V-neck sweater tucked into black slacks. Her only discernible jewelry is a modest diamond wedding band. It is a new item: She married Peter Land — the father of her daughter, Lucy, and a communications executive at PepsiCo — in October. Low-key and bookish, she approaches her job with a wonkiness honed in research, where her career originated when the Nyack, N.Y., native landed an entry-level job at a small Chicago research firm after graduating from college.

"I like numbers," she says. "I loved research, and I still do. It's the basis of how I make all of my decisions to this day. It's all about the consumer, about our fans. And if you listen to them, they will tell you how to be successful."

Says Doug Herzog, MTV Entertainment Networks Group president and her boss and mentor: "Michele is a great strategic thinker. I'm kind of ADD and a little bit more improvisational. I think that's one of the reasons we work so well together."

Ganeless joined Viacom in 1990 as a research manager for Ha!, the precursor to Comedy Central, and moved up the ranks at MTV and Comedy Central in research and planning as well as programming. Except for a stint at USA Network from 2001-04, she has spent her entire career at the company and was a key member of the programming team that launched The Daily Show and South Park.

"Michele is one of the architects of the Comedy Central brand," says Herzog. "She's really worked in almost every facet of this company. She has a true understanding of the brand because she really helped create it."

This year, the network ranks as the No. 1 entertainment brand in primetime among men 18-34 and is second only to ESPN across all of TV in that demo. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have bested their late-night broadcast competition and rank Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, among viewers 18-24 and 18-34 in late-night. The network had the highest-rated week in its 20-year history in September during broadcast TV premiere week, thanks to a roast of Charlie Sheen (a booking coup that nabbed 7.6 million viewers), Tosh's College Campus Invasion special (4.2 million viewers), the second-season premiere of Workaholics (2.6 million viewers) and the premiere of Jeff Dunham's latest stand-up special (6.5 million viewers).

Ganeless admits that a record-breaking week can bring a new set of anxieties. "I would be lying if I said I didn't worry about topping it," she says. But together with her development and programming teams, she is actively plotting the next frontier, including expanding original programming into the post-midnight hours after Colbert's show wraps and continuing to grow the network's ancillary business, which has become key in keeping top talent at Comedy Central.

Comedy Central takes a "farm team" approach to building talent, which then can get 360-degree deals that include websites, consumer products, national tours, one-hour specials and DVDs. "The key is finding these people before they become the Jon Stewarts or the Daniel Toshs," says Ganeless. Tosh, who hosts Tosh.0 and has been with the network for more than 10 years, was discovered by the talent department that scours the comedy club and festival circuit for promising young comedians. He started out doing five-minute stand-up sets, then graduated to hosting stand-up specials and landed his own show in 2009. Buoyed by a robust social media presence (6.8 million Facebook fans, 4 million Twitter followers) and original web content that drives the highest traffic to the Tosh.0 site when the show is on hiatus, Tosh.0 is now the No. 1 program on the network, with more than 4 million viewers an episode this season. It is also TV's top-rated show Tuesdays at 10?p.m. among men 18-24 and 18-34.

"I think, truthfully, Tosh is our best example of development and programming and digital really working in absolute concert with one another," says Herzog. "And it's Michele's job to bring that all together."

Eileen O'Neill

O'Neill has a suggestion for where she should rank on The Hollywood Reporter's Power 100 list: the same line as Nancy Dubuc, president of History and Lifetime Networks. "Could you make us tied? I like Nancy. I think she's an unbelievable programmer. But I think that would be funny," says O'Neill. "She and I are a bit of mirrors to each other. Nancy built History and now has Lifetime to figure out. And I built TLC and now have to figure out Discovery."

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

After four years at the helm of TLC, where she ushered in Sarah Palin's Alaska and Sister Wives and spearheaded the search for Muslim families featured in the network's latest series, All-American Muslim, O'Neill added flagship network Discovery to her purview in January. In August, emerging network Discovery Fit Health also became part of her portfolio.

It's been a good year for Discovery: Gold Rush, Deadliest Catch, American Chopper and Sons of Guns all have been No. 1 in cable in their time slots this year. Meanwhile, TLC continues to resonate, landing in the top 10 in primetime six out of seven nights of the week among women 18–49. Open and down-to-earth, O'Neill is described by colleagues as gracious, humble and decisive.

Asked to respond to criticism that TLC's Toddlers & Tiaras is a voyeuristic train wreck, O'Neill jokes: "No one's ever said that to me." And she defends the series as an unvarnished look at a $5 billion industry, insisting that the network is very cautious about how it portrays the children. "I appreciate the question because it's something we certainly wrestle with. We're not going to shy away from reality, but at the same time we're respectful of the fact that these kids have to go to school the next day," she says.

"A lot of us are parents, which helps us decide how far a storyline can go." O'Neill, 45, who lives in suburban Maryland with her partner and their 11-year-old son, likes to start her day with a 5 a.m. jog. She also enjoys escaping to the Delaware shore, though she admits she has trouble leaving work behind. "You can see me on the boardwalk, head down, BlackBerry in hand."

Cyma Zarghami

In the 26 years she's been at Nickelodeon (no mean feat in an industry known for its job-hopping), Zarghami, 48, not only has risen through the ranks from scheduling clerk to president (assuming the title in 2006), she's seen a whole generation of Nick viewers grow up. "It's an interesting time in our business because we have now a relationship with parents that we didn't have when we first started," Zarghami says, citing a Nielsen poll that suggests about 25?percent of mothers today watched Nick when they were kids.

Zarghami, who manages Nick's $20?billion business, the largest in parent Viacom's portfolio, saw that as a lucrative opportunity. In November, she announced a new programming block, NickMom, launching at the end of 2012 (a companion website is already live). The goal is to reach busy moms, 40 and under, in the hours between 9 p.m.-1 a.m.

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

With more than 30 NickMom original programming projects in development, it's a venture that Zarghami, herself a mom of three boys, feels strongly about. "A lot of women watch Nick at Nite as well as preschool content with their kids, and many are those whom advertisers like to target," Zarghami says. "There's a unique sensibility and a very large automatic community among mothers that is different than dads — not better or worse, just different."

These days, Viacom is at loggerheads with Nielsen over Nick's precipitous ratings drop; the network has tumbled double-digits since September and is on track to be bested this year by Disney Channel among kids 6-11, though Nick will finish the year as the top-rated network among kids 2-11 for the 17th year. Viacom blames Nielsen's new ratings sample. The measurement company stands by its data. Still, Zarghami can tick off many successes: the relaunching of Nick Jr. and TeenNick; partnering with Sony Music to create musical content shows such as Victorious; and September's Worldwide Day of Play in Washington in partnership with the White House.

Today, Nickelodeon is the world's most widely distributed kids' network, with 50 channels reaching more than 350 million people in 25?languages. Though she only half-jokingly says there is "absolutely no time" for fun, the New York-based Zarghami relishes time with her sons and stay-at-home dad husband.

Debra Lee

It was Lee's Harvard Law degree that served as her entree into BET when network founder Bob Johnson hired her to start the legal department 25 years ago. But Lee doesn't conceal her aversion to the law. "I never liked it," she admits. "I was one of those students who said, 'I didn't have anything else to do so I'll go to law school.' And that made it tough. I ended up in a great place and I have a very creative job that I love. But if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have taken that path."

Still, that path took Lee from BET's general counsel to COO in 1996 and, in 2005, to the top spot at the company. She now oversees the flagship network and sister channel Centric, which targets older viewers. "It was a quick learning curve," says Lee, 57.

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

The mother of a college-age daughter and a son who recently graduated and is now working in the programming department at XM Sirius, the Washington–based Lee likes to start her day by walking her daughter's dog. "My definition of a good day is when I have time in the morning to do a 45-minute walk before going to work," she says.

She also spends considerable time on the road, traveling to BET's offices in New York and Los Angeles as well as Atlanta, where the network's scripted series are produced.

After years of relying on music videos, some of which many felt glorified the gangsta lifestyle and objectified women, BET is coming off of its highest-rated season ever due in large part to a new slate of scripted programming led by The Game. Last January's premiere of the comedy — which BET resurrected after it was canceled by the CW — was watched by nearly eight million viewers, a cable record. It also served as a launching pad for Let's Stay Together (both shows return next month). And in October, BET, which is in more than 90 million households, premiered its third comedy, Reed Between the Lines, starring Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Tracee Ellis Ross.

With a dearth of scripted television exploring black culture, BET's efforts not only have found an audience, they've also made the network a destination for African-Americans in the creative community. "We're giving black writers, producers and showrunners a home," Lee says. "A lot of people have thanked me for proving that the business model of good, quality African-American-targeted programming continues to work."

Hannah Minghella

For Minghella, 32, the year has had a circle-of-life quality: On Nov. 27, she and her husband, TV writer and author Mitch Larson, welcomed their first child, daughter Delilah. She also completed her first year as head of production at Columbia, which, she says, "has been very much like coming home," since she began her career as director of creative affairs at Columbia in 2005 before segueing into a two-year stint as president of production at Sony Pictures Animation.

Back at Columbia, working with president Doug Belgrad, she picked up right where she left off. Having had a hand in Salt — she had suggested the title character should be a woman — she's now developing Salt 2, and she's also reunited with the Bond franchise now that Skyfall is in production.

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

From her new post, she watched the worldwide breakout success of the live-action, animated The Smurfs ($561?million), which she'd cultivated at SPA. "Having grown up in Europe," says Minghella, the daughter of the late filmmaker Anthony Minghella and Yvonne Miller, "I knew the strength of the Smurfs brand, but the success of the movie is more than I could have dreamed of."

She's working again with Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs writer-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who are in postproduction on 21 Jump Street. And she speaks the lingo when it's time to talk the big effects sequences being readied for next year's The Amazing Spider-Man and the Total Recall remake.

As she focuses on her own family, she's also looking forward to working on such family franchises as a Karate Kid sequel and Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment's new take on the musical Annie. But it's her animation background that continues to inspire her: "I was given a great education in animation and visual effects on The Smurfs that I now use on a daily basis."

Nancy Utley

Fox Searchlight continues to be one of the most envied specialty shops around, and Utley has more than proved her ability to carry on the legacy of Peter Rice and, before him, Tom Rothman (Utley runs the unit with fellow Searchlight president Steve Gilula). The latest case in point is Alexander Payne's The Descendants, an in-house production that quickly transformed into a crowd-pleaser when it opened in select theaters Nov. 16.

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

Originally, Utley, 56, wanted to be a reporter and enrolled in the journalism program at Northwestern. "I quickly realized that I didn't have the aggressiveness needed to be a good reporter because I'm a people-pleaser," Utley recalls. She discovered her calling when taking an advertising class and ended up on Madison Avenue, where she spent eight years at Grey Advertising (now Grey Global Group). She then segued into the film marketing business and spent more than a decade at Fox before arriving at Searchlight, where she ran marketing before being promoted to president.

If there's a secret to her success, Utley credits her Midwest upbringing (she's a Chicago native). "I think I have a different sensibility about what will work in other parts of the country," she explains. She's also got a large brood, between her three children and two stepchildren. "I'm in touch with a lot of different age ranges, since they vary in age from 15 to 30."

In terms of 2011 titles, she's most proud of Descendants, The Tree of Life and Shame, which launches in select theaters Dec. 2. Utley and Gilula surprised the indie world by picking up rights to Steve McQueen's Shame, since it's an NC-17 release. She says: "It's very exciting to try and get recognition for this film."

Vanessa Morrison Murchison

The modest Murchison isn't one to boast about her successes, but she scored a major coup this year with Rio. The 3D toon — from Murchison's Fox Animation Studios and partner Blue Sky Studios — earned $484.6 million worldwide, making it Fox's top-grossing film of 2011.

In 2007, Murchison became the first woman to head a studio animation division and right away embraced Carlos Saldanha's story about a Macaw named Blu who travels to Rio de Janeiro, Saldanha's hometown. "Rio is one of those movies where everybody involved put their heart and soul into it because it came from this very passionate, personal place," she says.

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

The UC Berkeley grad, 42, got her start in the industry as a paid intern and reader in Columbia Pictures' story department but considers her stint at Oakland's Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, which archived and acknowledged the contributions of African-American filmmakers, as her introduction to the business. "I got to meet the Nicholas Brothers and Cab Callaway," Morrison recalls proudly.

She joined Fox as a paid intern in 1994 and never left, segueing to creative executive positions before replacing former Fox Animation president Chris Meledandri.

Work on next summer's fourth installment of the Ice Age franchise, Ice Age: Continental Drift ("it's even more epic in scope," she says) and Chris Wedge's Leafmen, due out in 2013, has her flying cross-country to Blue Sky's Greenwich, Conn., headquarters.

Free time is spent with her husband, John Murchison, and their young son, whom she is teaching to play the violin. "He plays a little soccer but isn't in a league yet," she says, "so we do a lot of music-oriented stuff."

Elizabeth Gabler

Gabler learned to read when she was just 3 years old, giving her ample time to develop her keen eye when it came to spinning books into film adaptations. "My mom," she explains, "was a second-grade teacher and I was an experiment for her."

Gabler is among the most respected production chiefs in Hollywood, although Fox 2000 has had a rocky 2011. David Frankel's The Big Year, starring Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson, fell flat at the box office, while tween pic Monte Carlo came and went without notice. Water for Elephants, starring Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson and Christoph Waltz, did acceptable business — grossing $117.1 million worldwide — but wasn't a breakout hit.

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

Still, Gabler's division should end 2011 on a high note with the Christmas release of threequel Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked. Combined, the first two Alvin films grossed north of $800?million worldwide. Gabler also is immersed these days in the production of Christmas 2012 event pic Life of Pi, an adaptation of the best-selling book that Ang Lee is directing. She's also got surfing biopic