Michele Ganeless

Michele Ganeless is President of COMEDY CENTRAL, a position she has held since 2004.  Based in New York, Ganeless reports to Doug Herzog, President, Viacom Entertainment Group.

Ganeless is responsible for the leadership, strategy and management of the network as well as the day-to-day operations.  Under her leadership, Comedy Central has continued to build its position across all platforms as the number one brand in comedy.

This marks Ganeless’ third tour at Comedy Central, having originally started with the network in 1990.  From 2001 to 2004 Ganeless served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of USA Network where she worked closely with Herzog, then its President and CEO.  While at USA Network, Ganeless oversaw acquisitions, program scheduling, marketing, press, on-air promotion and research.  She played a key role in that network’s turnaround story, overseeing the launches of successful series including “Monk” and “The Dead Zone.”

In her second tour at Comedy Central, Ganeless served as Senior Vice President, Programming at COMEDY CENTRAL.  She joined the network in 1996 as Vice President, Programming, and was promoted to Senior Vice President in January 2000.  In that role, Ganeless was a key architect of the programming strategy that drove five straight years of ratings growth, and was a key member of the team that launched “The Daily Show” and “South Park.”

From 1992 to 1995, Ganeless was Vice President, Research and Planning at MTV.  She joined MTV from COMEDY CENTRAL where she was Research Manager from 1990 to 1992.  She was also an Account Manager at Young & Rubicam from 1989 to 1990.

Ganeless holds a BS degree from Northwestern University and lives in New York City.  She sits on the board of the Posse Foundation, an organization dedicated to identifying and training youth leaders from urban public high schools.