CBS hires Jon Koa as Head Comedy Development

CBS has hired Jon Koa as EVP, Comedy Development following the takeoff of veteran executive Julie Pernworth.

Koa was most as of late SVP, Scripted Television for Condé Nast Entertainment, where he has gone through the most recent six years. He was already Executive Director, Comedy Programming and Development, for ABC somewhere in the range of 2009 and 2015.

Koa will begin at the broadcast network soon and reports to Kelly Kahl, President, CBS Entertainment, and Thom Sherman, Senior Executive Vice President, Programming, CBS Entertainment.

He will supervise all comedy development for the net’s primetime programming.

During his tenure at Condé Nast Entertainment, he administered the development of the independent production entity’s series for network, streaming and cable and mined IP from publications like The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, GQ and Vogue for film and TV. He scored series orders at USA Network, Discovery ID and Sky Atlantic and developed projects for a huge number of platforms.

Preceding joining Condé Nast, he was part of the team that launched series including Black-ish, Fresh Off The Boat and The Goldbergs and was associated with shows like Happy Endings, Dr. Ken and Scrubs. He started his career in the drama development department at Universal Television.

Cutoff time uncovered last month that Pernworth, who developed series like Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother, 2 Broke Girls, Mom and The Big Bang Theory, was leaving following 21 years.

“Jon is a tremendously experienced television executive with an obvious passion for the development process,” said Kahl. “His reputation among his peers and the creative community is impeccable and he will be an extraordinary addition to the CBS team.”

Sherman added, “It was imperative we find just the right individual to lead our comedy team. Jon has tremendous creative chops and a keen eye for spotting writing that resonates. I look forward to working closely with him.”