CBS Studios Announces BIPOC Casting Fellowship, Sets Second Cohort For Leadership Pipeline Challenge

Brenda Kelly-Grant (r) has been named SVP, casting and talent relations, Disney Branded Television. She will succeed Judy Taylor, who will retire at the end of the year after a career that has spanned nearly half a century.

The former Fox and 20th Television exec will now oversee casting for Disney’s entire television portfolio, adding animation, alternative, Hulu and Freeform to a purview that already included Disney TV Studios and FX.

CBS is bringing on board ABC Entertainment’s Claudia Lyon as executive vice president of talent and casting, where she will oversee the unit’s operations for CBS Entertainment’s primetime and daytime programming, limited series, alternative programs and specials.
The broadcast development slate in December always provides a rough image of what the television screen might look like the following fall. This year, the picture is a little clearer. That’s because the Big Four are getting a head start on casting their lead actors — a strategy that signals a renewed effort by studios to break out of the strictures of pilot season.