Joanne Burns

Executive Vice President, Marketing, Research and New Media
20th Television and MyNetworkTV

A 30 year veteran of the entertainment industry, Joanne spent the first seven years of her career at Westinghouse/Group W Television in both sales and research where she ultimately started up and managed Group W’s first programming research department servicing such esteemed shows as PM Magazine, People Are Talking and John Davidson.

At the brink of first-run programming taking an aggressive stance in syndication Joanne joined LBS to run the research department.  During her four years at LBS Joanne helped usher in the return of Family Feud with Ray Combs and the dominance of Live Event specials such as “Return to the Titanic”. 

Disney then lured Joanne out West Coast to join Buena Vista syndication.  While heading up their research department Joanne took part in the birth of the hugely popular animation block, “The Disney Afternoon” and the record breaking off-net success of “Home Improvement”.  During her six year term at Disney Joanne also worked in concert with the studio’s animation, network, licensing and cable divisions. 

Leaving entertainment Joanne joined Nielsen Media Research as Sr. VP of NSS, Nielsen’s syndication business.  Having successfully orchestrated the reorganization of NSS to better meet the needs of the syndication clients Joanne found herself missing the creative side of the entertainment business and rejoined syndication at CBS’ new syndication company, Eyemark.  

At Eyemark she was called upon to establish a new research department to support syndication, cable, licensing, and international sales.  In addition to building the research department, Joanne launched Eyemark into cyber space with the development, marketing and support of the company’s numerous websites including Hollywood Squares. Rounding out her list of responsibilities was management of all cross-promotional campaigns for Eyemark/CBS syndication properties. During her tenure at Eyemark/CBS Joanne was an integral component to the launch of such shows as the Martha Stewart Living strip and off-net sale of Everybody Loves Raymond. While at Eyemark Joanne worked closely with Bob Cook, who then went to 20th Television as President and COO, and convinced Joanne to join him. 

Joanne is currently Exec. VP Marketing, Research and New Media, helping Bob to set the strategic course for 20th Television. Among the recent shows Joanne has been associated with are the off-net launches of Family Guy, Boston Legal and How I Met Your Mother, along with the on-going support of 20th’s long running and successful court shows, Divorce Court and Judge Alex and soon to debut Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader.  Joanne’s responsibilities span sales, marketing, publicity, programming and finance for 20th  TV’s 17 shows in the area of research, marketing strategy, and business planning. She’s also actively involved with the company’s expansion to all digital platforms. The other hat Joanne currently wears is that of MyNetworkTV where she helped sheppard its launch three years ago and subsequent redirected program strategy. For MyNetworkTV Joanne heads up research guiding program acquisition and scheduling, marketing, publicity and finance, along with oversight of the network website.

For the last three years Joanne has been an active member of Nielsen’s CRE (Council for Research Excellence) as one of the lead members on the Media Consumption and Engagement committee, which just released the comprehensive VCM study (Video Consumer Mapping.)