fbpx
icon icon

TV Talks: Eureka!

Still from ‘Dating Around’ | Image from Eureka, Netflix

04 Feb 2020,
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Australian Film Television and Radio School

RSVP

Since its foundation three years ago, Eureka, a young powerhouse of creativity, has become a force to be reckoned in Australian and International television production.

Less than a year after launching, the company produced over 70 hours of programming and in 2018, had eight series go to air. In the last six months alone, The Real Dirty Dancing, Drunk History, their version of The Amazing Race and so much more, have made it to our small screens.

In the US, they co-created Holey Moley for ABC and Dating Around for Netflix.

TV Talks host, Andrew Garrick, with founders and principals of Eureka, Chris Culvenor and Paul Franklin, will discuss how they’ve built this extraordinary company, what’s next, and how they see the world of television changing in the years to come.

GUESTS

Chris Culvenor, Co-CEO, Eureka
Paul Franklin, Co-CEO, Eureka

MC: Andrew Garrick

GUEST BIOS

Chris Culvenor

Chris Culvenor is among the world’s most successful and prolific TV program creators and producers responsible for a long list of hit TV franchises both in the US and Australia.

Prior to co-founding Eureka, Culvenor held the position of Senior Vice President, Development at Endemol Shine America, the world’s largest independent production company. In this role, Culvenor was responsible for building and selling the company’s extensive program slate and management of the unscripted creative team. During Culvenor’s three years in this role the company more than tripled its programming output, launching new series including MasterChef Junior (Fox), The Island (NBC), Riot (Fox), Hunted (CBS), Fake Off (TruTV), Going Wild (NatGeo Wild), The Face (Oxygen), Restaurant Startup (CNBC) Billon Dollar Buyer (CNBC) and Minute to Win it (GSN).

Culvenor enjoyed similar success in his previous role as the Head of Development at Shine Australia. As one of the company’s first appointments Culvenor was responsible for the development and sale of the programming slate. During his time at Shine Australia, the company grew from a start-up into the country’s largest production company launching a vast slate of programs including The Voice (Nine), MasterChef (Ten), Dating in the Dark (Foxtel), Australia’s Next Top Model (Foxtel), Wag Nation (Foxtel), Aussie Pickers (A&E Australia), The Shire (Ten), The Biggest Loser (Ten) and The Observer Effect (SBS).

Before joining Shine Australia, Culvenor worked as the Head of Alternative Programming and Digital Media at FremantleMedia Australia. In this role he was responsible for the acquisition and sale of The Apprentice Australia (Nine) and was the creator and executive producer of a long list of digital series including The Myspace Road Tour (MySpace), Dance Backstage (Ten Digital), Idol Backstage (Ten Digital), The Movie Show and Nerd News (SBS).

Paul Franklin

Paul Franklin is one of the world’s leading TV producers, responsible for the creative execution of numerous hit television franchises. Franklin has been the Supervising Executive Producer and creative architect behind Eureka’s long string of series including Holey Moley (ABC), Dating Around (Netflix), Crikey, It’s the Irwins (Animal Planet), Pick, Flip and Drive (Facebook), The Launch (CTV), The Chefs’ Line (SBS), Behave Yourself (Seven), The Single Wives (Seven),The Real Dirty Dancing (Seven) and The Amazing Race (Ten).

Prior to co-founding Eureka, Franklin served as Executive Vice President, Programming, at Shine America for three years where he launched and managed the company’s unscripted programming department. During his time at Shine America, Franklin was responsible for and served as an executive producer on such hit series as MasterChef and MasterChef Junior (Fox), The Biggest Loser (NBC), The Face (Oxygen), Tabatha Takes Over (Bravo), Minute To Win It (GSN), Riot (Fox), Restaurant Startup (CNBC), Fake-Off (TruTv) and Going Wild (NatGeo Wild).

Franklin also oversaw the launch of Canada’s top rating MasterChef (CTV).
Before moving to Los Angeles, Franklin worked as Shine Australia’s Head of Programming. As one of the company’s first appointments, Franklin was part of the core team that grew the start-up company into Australia’s largest production company. In this role Franklin oversaw the company’s unscripted properties including The Voice (Nine Network), MasterChef and Junior MasterChef (Network Ten), The Biggest Loser (Network Ten), The Renovators (Network Ten) and Relocation, Relocation (Lifestyle Network). Given Franklin’s critical role as the architect of MasterChef, he travelled extensively seeing the global rollout of the format in numerous territories including India, France and the US.

Between the years 2005-2009, Franklin served as Head of Factual Programming for FremantleMedia Australia. At Fremantle, he oversaw the company’s unscripted slate including the franchises such as The Apprentice (Nine Network), Farmer Wants A Wife (Nine Network), The Gift (Nine Network) and Project Runway (Arena).

Andrew Garrick

Andrew Garrick is best known for Creating and EP’ing late-night comedy show Tonightly on the ABC. He currently sits across the development slate at Screentime. His experience includes developing, writing, producing and directing shows for all of the local networks and major production houses, both here and abroad, including Shine, Freemantle, Screentime, Beyond and more. Andrew directs lots of commercials, most recently one with 12 dogs, and one where a guy copped a ball to the face in slow motion. Outside of Producing and Directing, Andrew teaches Applied Storytelling For Business for AFTRS. He’s also the Managing Director of Zedtown, a live zombie apocalypse experience for thousands of people at a time (yeah, it’s pretty ridiculous fun) which expanded from Australia into the USA and will just launched its first event in Asia.