Veteran TV Producer Will Join Showtime

Showtime Networks Inc. named Robert Greenblatt president of entertainment Wednesday to succeed Jerry Offsay, who several months ago announced plans to retire at the end of the year.

Greenblatt, 42, is a partner of Greenblatt Janollari Studio, the production company behind HBO’s hit drama “Six Feet Under” and UPN’s “One On One.” Greenblatt said his partner, David Janollari, would continue running that company, but that he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to “have a say in what goes on the air” at Showtime.

Showtime Chairman Matt Blank called Greenblatt “the right guy at the right time” for the network. Although Offsay first left a mark on Showtime with distinctive and edgy original movies and then with groundbreaking series such as “Queer as Folk,” the first show about the gay lifestyle, Blank said, the network is looking to broaden its appeal.

Showtime has cut its movie budget by two-thirds over the last year in part to increase its emphasis on scripted series, a formula that has worked well for rival Home Box Office.

Greenblatt has a wealth of scripted television experience. Before forming his company in 1997, pioneering a trend in which TV executives have become valuable as non-writing executive producers, Greenblatt served as executive vice president of prime time programming at Fox Broadcasting Co., where he was involved in the production and development of such shows as “The X-Files, “Ally McBeal” and “Beverly Hills 90210.”