From TVGameshows.net
Bob Boden, the original programming chief of Game Show Network when GSN launched in December 1994 and senior vice president of programming since August 2001, is leaving the network.
GSN is expected to issue a release on Boden's departure later today. Boden was not available for comment. However, some insiders say he is expected to form his own production company.
Kevin Belinkoff, an assistant to Boden and a former senior producer of Family Feud, is expected to be named interim chief of GSN programming.
Boden rejoined the network more than two years ago from his post as senior vice president for production and development of Dick Clark Productions. He created Greed and developed Challenge of the Child Geniuses for Fox.
Since returning to GSN, Boden has overseen the most ambitious slate of original programming in the nine years of the network's history. The company's biggest hit has been Lingo, which is in its third cycle of first-run episodes. Under Boden's watch, GSN's first documentary, Big Bucks: the Press Your Luck Scandal garnered the highest ratings of any program ever on the network.
At GSN's outset in 1994, Boden developed the "Prime Games" and "Club A.M." concepts, which featured on-camera hosts and playbreaks between classic Goodson-Todman and Barry and Enright games.
Boden's recent interview with Bob Barker, who turns 80 this week, is appearing in excerpts during a morning marathon Barker birthday celebration through Friday.
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