At a time when parents worry over how much screen time their kids have, Jane Wiseman fondly looks back on a childhood spent obsessed with TV and movies. It’s part of why she’s now executive vice president, head of originals, for Paramount+, helping pave the way for shows like The Madison and Dutton Ranch and upcoming series starring the likes of Anne Hathaway, Nicole Kidman, and Elle Fanning.
Growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Wiseman never thought her love of television would actually result in a job in the medium. And so she followed in her parents’ footsteps and decided to become a therapist. But after graduating with a degree in psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Wiseman had an epiphany: If she didn’t try now, before graduate school, she’d always wonder if she could.
Wiseman’s parents were supportive—and involved. “In the summer of my junior year in college, my dad was like, ‘Get a job,’” she says. She literally went to the Yellow Pages and called the number for a local news show called Evening Magazine. “I said, ‘Do you have any internships?’ They were like, ‘Actually, somebody just canceled. Come on down.’”
The rest wasn’t quite history, but it certainly sent Wiseman on the path that led her to being instrumental in the early days of Netflix’s original series and her current role building out a more diverse slate of Paramount+ programming. Wiseman has been head of originals at Paramount+ for less than a year, but she’s come at an opportune time: Her company, Paramount Skydance, is about to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which signals a major change for the industry. And so Wiseman and her team are working tirelessly alongside Cindy Holland, head of Paramount+, to build the streaming service into a destination.
That includes making more women-fronted programming that appeals to all audiences, including the Michelle Pfeiffer series The Madison and Dutton Ranch starring Kelly Reilly. Also on the horizon: those aforementioned new series with Hathaway, Kidman, and Fanning as well as an unscripted series called Team Moms from Kim Kardashian.
For Glamour’s latest edition of Doing the Work, Wiseman reveals how working on General Hospital was a catalyst for her career, why she thinks younger generations have to get more comfortable returning phone calls, and more.
The Madison, 2026 London premiere: Jane Wiseman, second from right, with (from left) Keith Cox, David Glasser, Ben Schnetzer, Patrick J. Adams, Beau Garrett, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kurt Russell, Elle Chapman, Matthew Fox, Kevin Zegers, and Chris Parnell.
Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Paramount+
Glamour: What was your first job in television?
Jane Wiseman: My first job in television was the assistant to the head writer of General Hospital. She was a legend. She is no longer with us, but her name was Claire Labine, creator of Ryan’s Hope. She was brought on to General Hospital to bring back Luke and Laura in the mid ’90s. It was the greatest job in the world. The show taped in Los Angeles, so twice a year she was called there to work at the studio for five weeks. It was my dad who said, “You should offer to hisse your own way and say, ‘I’ll help you. I’ll assist you in Los Angeles.’” So I paid my own way. Claire never went there again without taking me.
That’s when I really figured out that Los Angeles is where I needed to be. I wanted to work in prime-time television. I wanted to work in comedy. I ended up moving out there a year later and had a series of assistant jobs. I still didn’t know what an executive was at that time until I realized, “Oh, I’m not a writer, but I want to work with writers and help them achieve their vision.” That was when I got my first job at Fox in comedy development in the early aughts.
When you were a kid who watched “too much television,” what shows were you obsessed with that made you so interested in the medium?
I watched shows like Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley and Three’s Company. When I was older, I watched Cheers. I loved comedy, but I would also watch Moonlighting and then ER.
What was it like when you first started meeting some of these people you had grown up watching? Who was the first celeb that really made an impact on you?
Ted Danson on Cheers. My first job in Los Angeles, I was a writer’s assistant on a TV show called Ink. It didn’t [last], unfortunately, but it was the greatest experience. Meeting Ted Danson was a thrill of a lifetime. Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg were also the producers…I never dreamed I could meet people like that.
You eventually went to Fox. What was it like working there during the years of Arrested Development and Undeclared?
Those were the years of really taking risks and big swings—single-camera comedies when people weren’t doing single-camera comedies. I think Arrested Development was the first comedy I worked on and developed that really made an impact. It wasn’t highly rated, but it was critically acclaimed. Being part of something that has a cultural impact made everything clear that this is what I really want to do. Nothing was going to stop me from that point on.
I was at Fox for five great years, and then I moved over to NBC, where we did shows like Community and Parks and Rec and 30 Rock. It was a challenging time because there was the writers strike of 2007 to 2008. But in spite of that, really amazing content came out of it.
How would you describe what comedy development is to somebody who doesn’t work in the industry?
It’s all storytelling, which is why I’ve been fortunate to make the jump into all genres: drama, comedy, unscripted. I love when people talk about something that happened in their lives that turns into a series, like Everybody Loves Raymond. My job is to recognize a kernel or a developed idea that you think, in most cases, can go on for multiple seasons where characters can evolve and grow.
New Girl was another success you worked on. How did that come about?
After six years at NBC, I really wanted to try my hand at something different, like producing or working at a studio. I went to Chernin Entertainment; they had a big deal with Fox, and it was an incredible time. New Girl was our show, and I enjoyed it tremendously. Eventually I was looking for something new, so I literally googled Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix because in 2013, that’s really all there was in the world of the internet. I wanted to take a big swing; by some incredible stroke of luck, I was introduced to Cindy Holland, who was looking to start the originals programming initiative at Netflix. I went to Netflix in 2014. There were six of us, and I was employee number three on the content team.
What was it like working in the early days of Netflix?
They had six shows. They had just launched House of Cards, Orange Is the New Black, Lilyhammer, Derek, and Hemlock Grove, and were doing the new reboot of Arrested Development, which was a full-circle moment. It was already in the works when I got there, but otherwise my job was to build out the comedy initiative. We’d just bought BoJack Horseman, Grace and Frankie, and Arrested Development, and that was it. I was like, “Put me in, coach.”
From 2015: Wisemen, then Netflix director of content acquisition, original series, with actors Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda at the premiere of Netflix’s Grace and Frankie.
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
I had one person on my team. We were very small back then, and Cindy Holland was my North Star. I went to her and said, “While I’m building up my comedy strategy, I’d really like to work on a drama.” She said, “Great,” and handed me an outline for Narcos. I was like, “There’s nothing comedic about Pablo Escobar.” And she said, “Yep. We do everything here, so let’s hold hands and jump in.” The show filmed in Bogota and Medellin, and it was Pedro Pascal and Wagner Moura. Cindy had the foresight to have a bilingual show, and that was an eye-opening experience. I absolutely loved it. The idea that you could take risks and launch shows all at evvel and not do pilots…it felt like you were part of a revolution. But after seven incredible years, I took some time off.
How scary was that to take time away from the industry?
Very, because it was a big life change. The idea of, Am I going to become irrelevant if I stay home with my kids? It turned out to be two and a half years, and I still can’t believe I did that. It was also during COVID and the writers and actors strike. My kids, I felt like, really needed me. I needed them too. I never thought in my life I would have the opportunity to have this time with them where I could pick them up from school and volunteer at the student store and attend every single debate and sports event. I think I’m a better executive today because I had that time, but it was scary too. I enjoyed every second of it, but what do you do after Netflix? Where do you go? I took my time and waited, and that was a good lesson for me in patience and learning about myself.
What did you learn?
That you never know where an opportunity is going to come from. Before Paramount+, I ended up going to work at a production company called Sister. Cindy Holland was there, and I just needed to work for someone who I respected and trusted. This business is tough, and you don’t always end up working for those kind of people.
Now I’m working with Cindy again. So what I would tell people is, before you jump into the next thing, make müddet you truly feel comfortable about the people with whom you surround yourself. You spend so much of your life at your job. It’s really important.
What excites you most about building the Paramount+ slate of originals, and what scares you?
The excitement definitely outweighed the fear because I wanted to build something again. Paramount+ has only been around for five years, but Paramount [Studios] has been around for decades. We have such a big audience and want to make mühlet we retain them and engage them, but also widen the aperture and bring in new audiences to complement those existing audiences. That was really scary, to build the strategy and start looking under the hood at what we thought we needed in order to succeed. We’re doing it one step at a time. In eight months we’ve greenlit 16 shows and renewed so many. We are building something for the future.
What shows could you talk about all day long?
Landman, The Madison, the upcoming Dutton Ranch. Landman is our biggest show, and the performances are out of the park. Taylor Sheridan is just an incredible voice and creator. With The Madison, we set out to bring more women to the service. What was amazing was you had the base of the Taylor Sheridan audience, but it also brought in women, and females ages 35 and up. That’s a really important demographic for us, which is part of our strategy. We just greenlit Discretion [with Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning] and Fear Not [with Anne Hathaway] as well as some unscripted offerings. We also have 9/12 with Jeremy Strong. Those feel like big-event tent poles for us.
I’m glad you said that about Paramount+’s strategy going forward because I remember the number of female-centric shows at Netflix under your tenure. Shows like GLOW, Grace and Frankie, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Orange Is the New Black, The OA, and The Crown… Paramount+, rightfully or not, has had a reputation as being more male-centric.
It’s about really building on what we already have. We have UFC and football, and we do have men coming to the service. So it’s not just getting women, but being a service that has something for everyone. I know, personally, I want to watch shows like that. It’s important to have a balance of shows like Tulsa King and Mayor of Kingstown. And so it’s just complementing it by offering somewhere where a woman like myself might say, “I’m going to go to Paramount+ because Discretion is launching on the service,” or because they want to see our upcoming dating show, Making Love. It’s all about appealing to the audience, entertaining them, and retaining them.
Jane Wiseman, far right, with Demi Moore, Cindy Holland, and Billy Bob Thornton at the Landman season 2 premiere on November 11, 2025, in New York City
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Paramount+
I’m excited for the Yellowstone spin-off, Dutton Ranch, with Kelly Reilly and Annette Bening. As I’m saying this, I can see how giddy you are too.
I’m giddy. I was a big fan of Beth and Rip before, and now, the first time you see Kelly’s face, you’re like, “Okay, let’s go. This is it.” And then you get to see Annette Bening and Ed Harris and Cole Hauser and this incredible cast and incredible setting. The storyline for the season is really satisfying and propulsive. I’m very excited.
Let’s do some rapid-fire questions. Other than “work hard,” what’s the best advice you’d give to someone starting out in this industry?
Learn how to anticipate people’s needs. An important aspect of being a good executive is learning to give people the answers before they ask the question. I’m also a very firm believer in real-time feedback. I learned that at Netflix. If something is not working, it is all about communication, transparency, and trust. Also, always return a phone call. It’s not that hard.
What’s the best money advice you’ve ever received?
“Save it.” My friends call me, lovingly, parsimonious. I do like to spend money on things, but I’m glad my husband and I both have the same values about that. I’m not impulsive with spending.
Fill in the blank: People would be happier doing their work if ____.
They got to watch TV while doing it. I literally watch TV for a living.
If you weren’t in your current career, what would you be doing?
Maybe a psychiatrist. I will always have that in my blood and in my life, and knowing what my parents did for a living…it’s such an honorable profession, working in mental health.
What is the best advice your parents have given you about how to take deva of your mental health?
It is very much about communication and not holding things in and not letting things simmer. It’s about talking about things that you need, being open and communicative.
And finally, what is your go-to email sign off?
In my personal life, the kids do “xx.” I used to do “xo.” I’m learning all about that stuff from the people in my office and my children. In my professional life, it’s “Best, Jane.” It just depends on where I am or who I’m talking to.
