Jimmy Fox Joins Fremantle As Unscripted Chief As Jayson Dinsmore Moves To ‘AGT’ Role

EXCLUSIVE: Fremantle has a new unscripted chief.

The American Idol and America’s Got Talent producer has hired Jimmy Fox as EVP, Unscripted Development and Sales for its U.S. operations.

Fox joins from Religion of Sports, where he moved his Main Event Media banner from All3Media last year.

Fox’s hire comes as Jayson Dinsmore, who was President of Unscripted, changes roles to become a consulting producer on AGT, which starts production on Season 19 next month. Dinsmore has been at Fremantle for six years; he joined in 2018 from CMT, where he was head of development.

Fremantle is behind series such as NBC’s America’s Got Talent as well as ABC’s Idol and a slew of game shows including CBS’ The Price Is Right and syndicated series Family Feud.

The company also produces Jimmy Fallon’s Password, which is returning to NBC for a second season.

Fox will report to Fremantle Group CEO Jennifer Mullin and oversee its unscripted strategy as well as development and sales of original series across the genre. 

As part of his move, Fremantle and Religion of Sports, which was founded by Gotham Chopra, Tom Brady and Michael Strahan, have struck a strategic partnership. The two companies will work together on sports projects and Fox will continue to executive produce Main Event Media’s existing slate of projects for ROS.

Fox has a long list of unscripted credits. He exec produced series including Emmy-winning CNN series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell, true crime limited series, Daughters of the Cult, for Hulu and Netflix feature documentary Girl in the Picture.

As well as competition formats such as NBC’s Fashion Star and TBS’ King of the Nerds, Fox was also behind Netflix dating format Dated and Related. He also worked in the scripted arena with series such as Peacock’s Punky Brewster reboot.

It is the latest change for Fremantle on the unscripted side; Deadline revealed that Mandy Chang stepped down from her role as Global Head of Documentaries in December, and Jean Shi, who reported to Dinsmore, also stepped down that month.

“We are thrilled that Jimmy is joining Fremantle to lead our creative efforts in unscripted,” said Mullin.  The possibilities are endless with an inspired executive like Jimmy. He is a highly regarded executive who offers a fresh creative vision, innovative ideas, and respected industry relationships.”

 “I have long considered Fremantle to be the gold standard of the unscripted industry. As both a creator and developer, to be partnered with a global powerhouse of best-in-class executors and storytellers is incredibly thrilling,” added Fox. “I’m also grateful to have been able to facilitate this new partnership between Religion of Sports and Fremantle in the process.”