Bravo's Lauren Zalaznick: Divine Intervention Drives Career and Success

Originally Published: May 8, 2007

"Put your head down, do a good job and you get rewarded later," Bravo president Lauren Zalaznick tells college graduates starting out at the network. As Lauren shared the details of her own career with MediaVillage editors Ed Martin, Jacki Garfinkel and me at Michael's restaurant, it became clear she not only followed her own advice, but her career was the beneficiary of amazing coincidences, repetitive patterns, reappearing executives and divine intervention in the form of three well-timed pregnancies.

Lauren can connect three major career advances to each of her three children. In her 12th year of producing films from Compromising Positions to Kids (ironically), Lauren received a phone message while on the set of Kids from someone she didn't know named John Sykes. Sykes was one of the early founders of MTV and president of the Video Hits One network. Lauren didn't know that her own husband, director Phelim Dolan, had recommended her for a job heading promotion for the network. Between films, Lauren had produced music videos and commercials (to make money) and had gained a reputation as an especially talented producer of short format programming.

"John wanted someone to help re-brand the network and he called Phelim and several others who all suggested me," Lauren explained. "But no one told me. I had my head down," she laughs. "We were filming in a tenement in Hell's Kitchen and it was like 90 degrees and someone handed me a phone message from someone I didn't know. I completely forgot about the message and didn't return the call."

Weeks later, as production was winding down, Lauren received another message from Sykes and this time mentioned it to her husband, who explained why he was calling, urging her to return the call. "I'd never had a real corporate job, but I loved music videos and thought re-branding the network would be a fun project." The problem was that when I interviewed with John I was a couple months pregnant with my first child, and since I really didn't think I'd get the job, I didn't mention it. It took three months before I was actually offered the job, and when John called, I was five months pregnant. I walked into his office the next day figuring there was no way I could take the job if I'd be on maternity leave just a few months later.

"But it didn't even phase John," Lauren continued. "It was an incredible welcome to the corporate world. I started the job and treated it more like a short-term project than a corporate job. It was 1995 and there was a rebirth of rock 'n' roll, Lillith Fair, Celine Dion. We repositioned the network to VH1 and produced great promotional spots. Just when I figured the project was about complete, John asked me to be Vice President of Programming and Production. I guess he figured if I was good at producing two hour movies and 30-second promotions, maybe I could average them out and make thirty and sixty-minute programs."

Just as the corporate world seemed to be working out well for Lauren, fate intervened. The senior vice president of programming, her direct superior, resigned and a new executive, Jeff Gaspin, joined the network from NBC. Suddenly Lauren had a new boss who, she quickly discovered, "didn't take a shine to me. He had other issues to deal with but it was clear as soon as he focused on programming, I'd be gone." In those few months, however, Lauren kept her head down and put Pop Up Videos and Divas on the air, both of which quickly became VH1's most successful series. Again ironically, Lauren became pregnant with her second child, "making it a bit more difficult, if not impossible for them to fire me." Ultimately, Lauren and Jeff got along and he realized the pregnant woman with her head down was doing a very good job.

Lauren continued at VH1 until 2002, when she became president of Universal Television, then owned by Barry Diller. Of course, there's another story leading up to her job change and, again of course, there's a pregnancy involved. In August 2001, Lauren was invited to a cocktail party hosted by her friend Rachel Horovitz, who wanted to introduce Lauren to her boyfriend, U.K-based television executive Michael Jackson. Weeks later, Diller hired Jackson as president of Universal Television and he invited Lauren in for an interview. "He scheduled the interview in early January, but I was eight months pregnant," Lauren recalled. "I pushed the meeting until January 20 and gave birth to my third child on January 9." A few weeks later, Lauren started at Universal as president of Trio Network.

Once again, though, fate and coincidence intervened. Lauren stayed with Trio for two years, "keeping my head down and trying to do a good job. Then Universal and Trio were acquired by NBC, and who was suddenly there as my new boss? Jeff Gaspin!" Gaspin had returned to NBC to head the cable network operation. When NBC Universal acquired Bravo from Cablevision's Rainbow Networks, Gaspin elevated Lauren to president. Surprisingly, she was not pregnant at the time, but she did inherit the aging cult hit Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Bravo's one hit wonder had defined the network and its ratings were quickly eroding, creating a major challenge for Lauren. "Queer Eye was a galvanization of what Bravo wanted to be," she said. "It was totally of the moment, and we had to come up with new series that had the same sensibilities."

After Queer Eye, Bravo really hit its stride with the ever popular Project Runway, which reminded fashion minded reality viewers that Bravo was the network to watch. Runway has since inspired three other shows: Top Chef, Top Design and Shear Genius. Top Chef was an immediate hit, even with the controversy at the end of season two, when fan favorite Sam was eliminated. Viewers have more to look forward to in its third season, premiering this summer. "In terms of baseline chef talent, this is the most talented cast," Lauren said. Shear Genius, the hairstyling competition show hosted by former Charlie's Angels star Jaclyn Smith, is also doing well; on its premiere night it retained 88% of its audience from its Top Design lead-in. While all of these shows follow the same structure, Lauren doesn't see an end for the genre any time soon. "Think of all the apple pie recipes in the world. Do I see apple pie running its course? No."

In addition to these reality competition shows, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List will be returning June 5, along with Inside the Actors Studio this spring, and Million Dollar Listing. New series include Hey Paula, a observational reality series that looks inside Paula Abdul's life, and Millionaire Matchmaker, which features an elite matchmaking service that takes millionaires, completely transforms their looks and personalities, and finds them dates.

Lauren was the youngest of three children, growing up in Great Neck, Long Island. She went to Brown University to major in pre-med, but was "transformed" by Brown's film and media studies program. "I knew I wanted to work on films, and I knew I'd be better off taking a year before med school to get the film experience. We had an intense academic household and it should have been an issue that I never went to med school, but it never was. I spent twelve years producing movies and it was still like a halo from college."

Lauren doesn't seem the type to keep her head down, but she's clearly produced in all her jobs and is continuing to deliver at Bravo. She now considers Bravo to be pregnant with more and more hit shows that it will soon be delivering. Keep your eye on her for future success. There is clearly divine intervention involved. To connect with Lauren, e-mail contact@mediavillage.com.