Michael Hirschorn Leaves VH1, Forms Ish Entertainment, Forges Deal With Former Bosses

Michael Hirschorn's days as the executive vice president of original programming for VH1 are over. Today, VH1 announced that Mr. Hirschorn was leaving to form a new entertainment company, called Ish Entertainment, along with Stella Stolper, the senior vice president of celebrity talent development at VH1.

The company will be based in New York and Los Angeles and will focus primarily on non-scripted television.

The broader diaspora of MTV, VH1, CMT, and Logo has formed an exclusive first-look deal with Ish Entertainment for three series, which, according to the announcement, "will provide Ish with development funding and overhead with the aim of bringing Hirschorn's successful development and production talents not only to VH1 but to the entire Music and Logo Group."

More from the announcement:

"The word 'brilliant' should be reserved for very special examples…like Michael Hirschorn," [President of Entertainment for the MTVN Music and Logo Group Brian] Graden said. "He possesses one of the fastest, most vibrant minds I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness working. Where some fail to ever master a single medium, Michael went from being a magazine editor to mastering network TV development in far less than a lifetime. An unparalleled listener, it must be Michael’s ability to take it all in that allows him to unerringly output universally appealing content that speaks so perfectly to our collective culture."

"I have been discussing next steps with Brian for six months, and he has been nothing but supportive in finding ways to allow me to grow professionally while continuing what has been a very fruitful relationship," Hirschorn said. "I owe to Brian most of what I understand about TV, so I'm thrilled that I will be able to continue working with and learning from him in this new venture, while gaining the opportunity to deliver shows to a wider range of networks. And I'm eager to continue my relationship, albeit in a new form, with my successor, Jeff Olde, who has been instrumental in delivering so many of VH1's hits over the past five years."