Deirdre and Scott Gurney founded Gurney Productions in 2005 under the most modest of auspices: They were just dating, working out of the Los Angeles condo they shared, and they’d filmed one pilot for ESPN. Upward of 40 TV series and one monster hit (Duck Dynasty) later, the pair sold a controlling stake in their operation to ITV for $40 million in 2012.
Gurney Productions has signed with ICM Partners, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned.
The company is responsible for A&E’s buzzy Duck Dynasty, whose sixth season premiered June 11. The docuseries has set multiple ratings records, including becoming the most-watched reality show in cable TV history when 11.8 million viewers tuned in for its fourth season premiere last August.
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Since founding the banner in 2005, spouses Deirdre and Scott Gurney also have produced the nonfiction series Auction Hunters, American Digger and Haunted Collector, among many others. Gurney, which has a staff of more than 300 employees, also helped establish Discovery’s summer staple Shark Week with specials including How Sharks Hunt, Killer Sharks: The Attacks of Black December and Great White Appetite.
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In December 2012, U.K. broadcasting giant ITV acquired a 61.5 percent controlling stake in Gurney, which has a staff of more than 300 employees, for $40 million. Gurney’s next project, the celebrity docuseries Leah Remini: It’s All Relative, will premiere July 10 on TLC.
