EXCLUSIVE: Craig Piligian, one of the pioneers of the reality television business, is leaving Lionsgate Alternative Television and Pilgrim Media Group.
The move is somewhat of a surprise given that Piligian, who is managing director of Lionsgate Alternative Television, has been a stalwart of the genre, starting in the mid ’90s.
Deadline understands that Piligian, who sold his remaining stake in Pilgrim Media Group to Lionsgate last year, will work through the end of the year. He will continue as a consultant and will exec produce a number of projects.
Piligian sold a majority stake in Pilgrim Media Group to Lionsgate in 2015 for around $200M. He reupped his deal in 2021 and expanded his purview to include the studio’s unscripted arm, which was later relaunched as Lionsgate Alternative Television after the company acquired eOne, which brought companies including Blackfin, Renegade and Daisybeck Studios into the fold.
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He got his start as an assignment editor at Las Vegas ABC affiliate KTNV before moving into production in 1991 with syndicated series including Emergency Call and Real Stories of the Highway Patrol. He launched Pilgrim Films & Television in 1997, producing series including Inside The CIA for Discovery.
But it was Survivor that changed both Piligian’s career and the arc of reality television in the U.S. He became co-exec producer of the CBS adventure series in season one before producing the next two seasons.
Piligrim produced series including American Chopper, which ran for eight seasons on Discovery Channel and TLC, Ghost Hunters, which ran for eleven seasons and over 200 episodes on Syfy, Dirty Jobs, the Mike Rowe-hosted series for Discovery that ran for ten seasons. He also created The Ultimate Fighter, which aired 14 seasons on Spike TV and still airs today on ESPN+, a move that got him inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame earlier this year.
Other series he has produced include Nat Geo’s Wicked Tuna, Discovery’s Fast N’ Loud, ABC’s The Ultimate Surfer, OWN’s Lindsay, CMT’s Swamp Pawn, FYI’s Kocktails with Khloé and Fox Nation’s Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints.
Lionsgate Alternative Television is also behind series such as Discovery’s Naked and Afraid, Netflix’s Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez and MTV’s Ex on the Beach.
The move comes amidst a tricky time for unscripted producers; last year Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said that its unscripted business was “feeling the effects of a continuing market correction”.
It’s not clear what Piligian will do next but there’s a possibility that he sets up another TV business. Meanwhile, insiders said that Tom Huffman, who was promoted to Chief Creative Officer at Pilgrim in 2021 and is now EVP, Development, Lionsgate Alternative Television, Nicholas Caprio, Chief Current Officer and General Manager, Pilgrim Media Group, and Geno McDermott, Chief Creative Officer, Blackfin will now report to Kevin Beggs, Chair and Chief Creative Officer of Lionsgate Television Group.
“We’ve had a great 10-year run together,” said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer. “Craig helped us build our brand in the unscripted space, guided us through the pandemic and assisted with the eOne acquisition. He’s a good friend and a great entrepreneur, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with him as a consultant and producer on a number of unscripted series.”
Lionsgate Alternative Television and Piligian are repped by UTA.