Channing Dungey Biography

Channing Dungey (Channing Nicole Dungey) is an American television executive and producer who became president of ABC Entertainment Group in 2016. As such, Dungey became the first black American president of a major broadcast TV network.

Channing Dungey Education

She attended Rio Americano High School, where she was a cheerleader and held a 2.4 GPA; later graduating in 1986. In 1991, she graduated from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

Channing Dungey Career

Channing Dungey began her career in entertainment as a development assistant for Davis Entertainment. Later, she joined Warner Bros. as a production assistant, where she helped develop and supervise a number of commercially successful films including Heat (1995), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), The Matrix (1999), and The Devil’s Advocate (1997).

Channing Dungey ABC

Channing Dungey joined ABC Studios in the summer of 2004 and worked as head of drama. On February 17, 2016, Dungey was hired as president of ABC Entertainment on replacing Paul Lee.

She oversaw the development of ABC Studios shows such as Criminal Minds, Scandal, Nashville, How to Get Away with Murder, Quantico, Army Wives and Once Upon A Time, as well as the second cancellation of Roseanne on May 29, 2018. She previously defended Roseanne over racially controversial jokes made on the show.

Channing was ABC Entertainment’s president when a Blackish episode was pulled from the schedule. She noted ABC executives disagreed with the creative direction of the episode, wherein the writers touched on NFL players kneeling during the American national anthem to protest police brutality and show support for black human rights.

On November 16, 2018, she left her role as President of the ABC Entertainment Group in advance of management changes triggered by Disney’s takeover of 21st Century Fox. Karey Burke, head of original programming for Disney’s Freeform cable channel, took Dungey’s position as head of ABC Entertainment.

Channing Dungey Age

She was born on March 14, 1969 in Sacramento, California, United States. She is 55 years old as of 2024.

Channing Dungey Family

Dungey is the daughter of Don and Judith Dungey. She is the eldest of two daughters, her younger sister is actress Merrin Dungey.

Channing Dungey Sister

Dungey’s younger sister Merrin Dungey is an actress best known for her roles on the television series The King of Queens, Alias, Malcolm in the Middle, and Summerland.

Channing Dungey Husband

She got married to Scott Power in 2003 and together they have two children.

Channing Dungey Salary

Dungey earns an estimated salary of about $10,000 to $100,000 annually.

Channing Dungey Net Worth 

Dungey’s net worth is estimated to be around $1 million to $5 million.

Channing Dungey Netflix

On December 17, 2018, it was reported that Netflix had hired Channing Dungey as their new vice president of original content. She will report to Cindy Holland, Netflix’s vice president of original content. Netflix said she will work closely with fellow ABC alums Kenya Barris and Shonda Rhimes, as well as with other top Netflix talent.

Channing Dungey Leave ABC

On Friday, Nov. 16, 2019, Channing Dungey became the latest broadcast entertainment chief to show herself the door.

Dungey did so after nearly three years in the job — and, notably, before the ABC environment as she knew it was poised to change amid a merger with the major assets of 21st Century Fox. In a matter of months, Dungey would have been reporting to outgoing Fox TV Group head Dana Walden.

According to multiple sources close to Dungey, she is said to have been weighing whether to stay or go ahead of her contract’s early 2019 expiration, and ultimately chose the latter. Those same sources say there were efforts made by her current and future bosses to keep her. They also suggest she’ll be taking time to figure out what’s next.

To be sure, Dungey is not the only one who opted to exit ABC ahead of the Disney-Fox merger. In fact, two other top executives — also black and female — have departed in recent months as well. In August, Nne Ebong announced she would be leaving ABC Studios as its drama head.

Then in October, Jamila Hunter revealed she’d be departing as head of the network comedy division to join Kenya Barris at his Netflix-based production company. And now it’s Dungey, whose decision caught many by surprise.

Though her tenure as chief was hardly long, it was peppered with big swings, at least a few of which became successes. Though her former boss Ben Sherwood deserves credit, too, the bold and pricey decision to take on American Idol proved relatively shrewd, as the music competition that had previously run on Fox performed for ABC.

Dungey also gets points for identifying and nurturing a bona fide drama hit in David Shore’s The Good Doctor, which in the midst of its second season is netting an impressive 2.6 rating in broadcast’s target 18-49 demographic and 13.3 million viewers once a week of time-shifting is factored in.

At the same time, Dungey’s run was rocked by plenty of drama, beginning with the high-profile departures of two of ABC’s biggest brand-name showrunners, Shonda Rhimes and Kenya Barris, who moved from ABC Studios to Netflix.

In neither case was Dungey name-checked as a reason for their exit — in fact, both still actively praise her and her talents, and at least one has tried to recruit her in the months since. Nonetheless, the moves occurred on her watch.

Of course, Dungey, the first black woman in history to run a broadcast network, will probably be best remembered for her role in the Roseanne fiasco. She ordered the revival, which enjoyed a record-shattering first season, lifting ad rates and ratings for ABC at large in spring 2018.

Then came Barr’s controversial June tweet, after which Dungey took immediate action and canceled the No. 1 series on TV. At the time, sources suggested that she was most vocal and adamant about the decision internally. Externally, she became the public face of Barr’s axing, earning headlines and accolades beyond Hollywood’s reach.

Her decision to move forward with a Barr-less spinoff, The Conners, has not yielded the same ratings results. The series is pulling a comparatively modest 2.9 rating in the key demo — though that’s only modest when you stack it up against Roseanne’s boffo revival, which pulled nearly double the viewership with a 5.5 rating.

The latest shake-up comes as Walden, who exited her gig atop Fox broadcasting exactly one week earlier, prepares to take the helm at ABC. And it’s hardly ideal. Despite some misfires (remember Marvel’s Inhumans?),

Dungey was trusted and well-liked by both her ABC team and the larger community, and having her in that chief seat during a complicated transition would have proved valuable to Walden and an already anxious staff. Walden and new Disney/ABC TV Group boss Peter Rice are said to have been involved in the choice of Freeform’s Karey Burke as Dungey’s replacement.

Burke inherits a broadcast network that is once again ranked last in the Big Four. Though ABC’s ranking typically perks up in the second half of the traditional TV calendar, Dungey’s fall ratings were pacing 19 percent below the 2017-18 season last November, and the audience is down by 12 percent.

Yes, that’s the overall broadcast trend — save Fox, lifted by its increasing lean on sports and the 2018 acquisition of Thursday Night Football — but it still stings. For the 2017-18 season, ABC wrapped the year in a three-way tie for second place, with ABC, CBS and Fox all distantly trailing a dominant NBC.

This last schedule of Channing’s making, however, did include its share of freshman breakouts. Neither dramas A Million Little Things nor The Rookie are pulling Good Doctor numbers, but they’ve helped shore up several slots in the increasingly tricky schedule.

Dungey’s ABC tenure will most likely be remembered for the meteoric success and near-immediate implosion of Roseanne, but her knack for positioning multiple new dramas for long-running success will serve her well as she plots her next move.

Source; www.hollywoodreporter.com

Channing Dungey Delta Sigma Theta

In 2023, Channing became an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.