What is Visions for Tomorrow?
Bonnie Hammer
Bonnie Hammer- Bonnie Hammer is President, USA Network and SCI FI Channel. Widely acknowledged as an industry leader in network programming and branding, Hammer was named to the USA position in May 2004, adding to the title she earned at SCI FI in April 2001. At USA, she oversees operations for cable television’s leading provider of original series and movies, sports and entertainment events, off-net television shows and blockbuster theatrical films. At SCI FI, she is responsible for all facets of the network’s growing divisions, including programming, licensing, marketing, magazine publishing and SCI FI’s award-winning SCIFI.COM® Web site.
- Consistently cited by The Hollywood Reporter on their annual list of the most important women in Hollywood, Hammer has been honored with a MUSE award for Outstanding Vision & Achievement from New York Women in Film and Television, and was named 2005’s "most influential woman in cable" by CableWorld.
- Since assuming leadership at USA, Hammer has taken the network to the #1 position in all of cable, which she accomplished in part by overseeing the most successful stable of original programming in cable, including the Emmy and Golden Globe- winning “Monk,” the Emmy -nominated “The 4400” and “The Dead Zone.” She also engineered the return to USA in October 2005 of the top-rated “WWE RAW.” Additionally, Hammer led a major branding initiative for USA - “Characters Welcome” — the first of its kind in the network’s 28-year history. Expanding the scope of the successful re-branding, she most recently directed cable entertainment’s first foray into the digital social networking space by launching a campaign that marked the most aggressive digital marketing initiative in USA’s history, centering around the launch of ShowUsYourCharacter.com.
- Under Hammer’s direction, SCI FI Channel has become a Top 10 cable network in both household ratings and key demographics, as well as an industry leader in the production of original programming. Consistently challenging the perceptions of the genre, Hammer has delivered a broad slate of critically acclaimed scripted dramas, big event miniseries and crowd-pleasing alternative reality shows. In December 2002, Hammer led SCI FI to a stunning success with “Steven Spielberg Presents TAKEN.” The history-making 20-hour miniseries made SCI FI the #1 basic cable network on television for its two-week run, and garnered the Channel its first Golden Globe nomination, as well as its first Emmy win in a major category - Best Miniseries. Capitalizing on that success, Hammer firmly established SCI FI as the television home for "event programming" with subsequent miniseries hits like “Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “Legend of Earthsea” and “The Triangle.” The Channel regularly attracts the attention of Hollywood’s elite, securing deals with the likes of Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Joel Schumacher, Joel Silver, Bryan Singer and Dean Devlin.
- Hammer also upped the ante on the Channel’s dramatic series with the unstoppable SCI FI Friday line-up of “Stargate SG-1,” “Stargate Atlantis” and “Battlestar Galactica,” one of the most critically lauded series currently on television.