Bessey Upped To EP Of ‘ET’ And ‘The Insider’

On Monday, Brad Bessey was promoted to oversee both Entertainment Tonight and The Insider effective immediately, it was announced today by Hilary Estey McLoughlin, president of creative affairs for CBS Television Distribution.

Bessey is currently executive producer of The Insider, and he will add executive producer duties for the Entertainment Tonight in his expanded role.

In addition, Monique Chenault joins The Insider as co-executive producer. Linda Fuller continues with Entertainment Tonight as an executive producer.

Bessey, who has been executive producer of The Insider since 2012, has a long history with ET, first working for the show in 1995 as a coordinating producer. He quickly ascended to supervising producer in 2000, to senior producer in 2003, then to co-executive producer in 2005.

During Bessey’s 15-year tenure with ET, CTD said, he played a key role in Entertainment Tonight’s brand extensions and digital development, spearheading editorial on the creation of ETonline, TheInsider.com and ETonMSN.

In addition, Bessey was part of the launch team for Entertainment Tonight’s spinoff sister show, The Insider, and served as senior consultant on the show from 2004 to 2010. 

In 2010, Bessey left ET when he was named executive producer of The Talk on CBS — network television’s first daytime talk show in over a decade. Under Bessey’s leadership, The Talk received a 2012 Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Talk Show, Entertainment.

DJ Petroro, ET’s current executive producer, will be leaving the show. “I want to thank DJ for all of his contributions to the enduring success of ET and previously The Insider,” Estey McLoughlin added.

Chenault is an experienced producer, showrunner and writer with a background in celebrity news.  Chenault joins The Insider after years as an executive producer and showrunner for BET Networks and Macvision Entertainment. 

At BET, she was the Executive Producer of numerous specials. Previously, she spent eight years at NBC Universal’s Access Hollywood as a senior producer, where she created and launched the spinoff TV One Access — a one-hour newsmagazine focusing on urban news and entertainment, pop culture and issues important to people of color — for the TV One network. She also served as a supervising producer and showrunner for the weekend edition of Access Hollywood.

Chenault received her bachelor’s degree in communications from UCLA and earned a Master of Arts in broadcast journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Fuller began her ET career in 1989 when she first joined the show as an associate director. She also served as director, then producer of ET’s weekend show and senior producer before being named an executive producer in November 2013.

Linda Bell Blue is an executive producer On Entertainment Tonight and The Insider and will transition to her role as president of ET Studios in June.