Skydance Sports Hires Kitty Gambel to Lead Alternative Unscripted
Skydance Sports has hired Kitty Gambel as its new SVP of Alternative Unscripted, poaching a senior creative executive from Amazon's MGM Alternative to build out the Paramount-owned studio's unscripted slate. Gambel starts September 8 and will report to Jon Weinbach, Skydance Sports' Head of Unscripted, according to Deadline.
Gambel arrives with one of the more enviable unscripted résumés in American television. At MGM Alternative — the production unit Amazon acquired when it bought MGM in 2022 — she was SVP of Unscripted and Alternative TV, serving as creative lead across development and current programming. Her slate there included some of the most-watched unscripted brands on US broadcast: NBC's The Voice, CBS's Survivor, ABC's Shark Tank, Fox's Beat Shazam, and Amazon's American Gladiators. She has also worked with MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson), Jelly Roll, Jimmy Kimmel, and Garcelle Beauvais.
Her move comes amid a leadership shuffle at Amazon MGM Studios. Gambel originally reported to Barry Poznick, the General Manager of Unscripted Television at Amazon MGM. When Poznick departed at the end of last year, she briefly reported to Peter Friedlander, Amazon MGM Studios' Head of Global TV. Amazon then hired Jenn Levy as its unscripted boss in January, following Poznick's exit. Gambel's departure closes that transitional chapter.
Before Amazon, Gambel spent over eight years at SallyAnn Salsano's 495 Productions, where she worked on series including The Real, Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party, Floribama Shore, and Party Down South. She got her start in syndication on courtroom and talk formats like Judge Judy, Divorce Court, and Maury. She was named to Realscreen's "Factual Under 40" list and joined MGM Television in April 2019 as one of three new unscripted executives, alongside Justin Dudek and Zena Van Ackeren, under Barry Poznick and Mark Burnett.
Skydance Sports, meanwhile, has been building a sports-content portfolio that spans documentary and scripted. The studio has produced sports documentaries including Netflix's Rafa, America's Team: The Gambler and his Cowboys, and Aaron Rodgers: Enigma; Apple's The Dynasty: UConn Huskies; and Amazon's Taurasi and Kelce. It is also behind Hallmark's scripted series Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story and the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck film Air.
What makes this hire worth watching is the fit. Gambel's career has run through celebrity-driven reality, competitive formats, and talent-heavy productions. Skydance Sports has been scaling up across sports storytelling. Bringing in someone who has overseen Survivor and The Voice suggests the studio is not just stacking credits — it is looking for an executive who knows how to run large unscripted productions with big personalities and tight production calendars.
Gambel's first day is September 8. What she commissions, develops, or greenlights next has not been announced.
