What was your first “big break”? Or, what is the most significant experience you had that made it possible for your success today?

After graduating from college, I was interested in news and politics and went to work for ABC News in New York. While at ABC, I worked as a researcher for Nightline during the first Gulf War. This was an intense time in news. My work had to be precise and I had to be extremely efficient with my time. Accuracy was key. We worked around the clock. I had to apply myself to the task at hand, be able to respond quickly to breaking information, and work in a team environment. The work ethic I learned during this period remains with me today.

How did you transition from a traditional law career to developing television programming?

Since I had worked in news right after college, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in media. I went to law school to learn more about the legal, business and management of media and entertainment. I knew I did not want to practice law in the traditional way, but I still took and passed the New York bar. During law school, I did freelance producing work in the summers for ABC news. When I graduated, I had a six-figure offer from a law firm which I turned down and begged my way into a job as a TV news reporter in Las Vegas that paid under $20,000 a year! My parents thought I was crazy but I knew I wanted to build my career in media and I learned so much in that job.

After a while, I left Las Vegas for Los Angeles and have continued my career here. Now I am exactly where I want to be: helping to develop the vision of a network by building its content and programming. I believe TV is an enormously powerful medium because it has the power to entertain and to educate. That’s what’s exciting to me.

Are there any ways that you feel Georgetown especially prepared you for what you are doing now?

In my job, I am often required to review contract language and participate in the negotiation of deals. My law degree from Georgetown has given me the tools I need to address these matters. Many of the issues I studied in Constitutional Law, Copyright Law, Entertainment Law, Contracts and Torts apply to my everyday work. Law has proven to be an invaluable resource for me.

What is your best advice to those who are starting out in your field?

Work hard and keep your nose out of the fray.

Can you share some information about one of your current or upcoming projects that you are most excited about and why?

We have several series and specials in the works for 2004 and 2005. Many of the projects are still being hammered out so I cannot talk about too many of them right now.

I will tell you about one of the specials... one that we are hoping will be a big hit. This summer we will air our own version of the hit 1950s show, “Queen for a Day.” This is a great feel-good special in which after a nationwide search, one everyday woman is crowned Queen for a Day and is showered with prizes and gifts.

In 2004, several of our existing series have been picked up for another season. We will be building a strong Friday evening block with our makeover show “Head 2 Toe” and our wedding/decorating show “Merge”. We’ve had great success with these two shows. We attribute this success to the fact that, at their core, both shows are about relationships. In “Head 2 Toe”, best friends make each other over and, in “Merge,” couples agree to let a design team merge their belongings while they are away on a honeymoon.

Also coming back to Lifetime for another season is “What Should You Do?”. This season we’ve added Leeza Gibbons as host to the show. The show re-creates true stories about people who have had to respond to an urgent, unexpected crime or medical, survival or legal challenge in a mini-movie format. At the end of each story, experts and our host tells viewers what they should do if they were in that situation. We have had a great response to this show. Oprah picked it up and based two of her shows on two of our shows.

What trend(s) do you think may emerge to bring change to your business five or ten years from now?

Nonfiction/reality programming will begin to replace television commercials as a key platform for advertisers to “sell” their goods.

With the advent of personal video recorders (PVRs) and other devices that are allowing viewers to skip over traditional commercials while watching their favorite shows, advertisers are looking for new ways to “sell” their products to viewers. Reality programming has been a great platform for this.

Products and advertiser’s messaging lines can be easily inserted into many reality formats. Viewers expect to see “real” products in a nonfiction show, so they are not taken out of the moment when they see a label, a logo, a name brand in a nonfiction show. Whereas in scripted television dramas and comedies, product placement and/or messaging can seem contrived and out of place—not organic to the format. Because reality programming lends to product placement and messaging more than other formats, advertisers will be looking to this genre as a new generation of “commercials”.

Most networks are already working with advertisers to find creative ways for advertisers to “buy” time on any given channel. Many have already successfully used reality programming to benefit advertisers. I think we will only see more and more of this in the future.



Colette Shelton is Director, Reality Programming, for Lifetime Television, responsible for development of original reality series and oversight of current reality series and programming. While at Lifetime, she has worked on a wide variety of series and specials ranging from talk shows, primetime magazine shows, and game shows, to awards shows and concerts. Her credits at Lifetime (past and present) include among others: Merge, Final Justice with Erin Brockovich, What Should You Do?, Women Rock (I-IV), Unsolved Mysteries, Head 2 Toe, Lifetime's Speaking of Women's Health, Operation Style.

Prior to Lifetime, Shelton had been a producer for E! Entertainment Television. While at E! she produced for a live daily news show and show produced several specials. Her credits at E! include: E! News Daily, E! News Daily Special: Leonardo!, E! News Daily Special: ER 100 Episodes, and Sideshow Celebrities.

Before turning to entertainment, Shelton was a television news producer for both national and local news organizations. During her news career, she worked for WCVB-TV in Boston, ABC News in New York (Nightline, World News Saturday/Sunday, Business World) and Los Angeles, and Hearst Broadcasting in Washington, D.C. She was also an on-air television news reporter for the NBC affiliate in Las Vegas, KVBC-TV.

Shelton holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree from Wellesley College and Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Georgetown University Law Center. Shelton is a licensed attorney in the state of New York and is a member of the New York State Bar Association.

In Los Angeles, Shelton has also served as a board member for the Museum of Contemporary Arts Contemporaries.