News Corp's Fox broadcast unit said its reality-TV chief Mike Darnell has decided to step down after 18 years at the network as audience ratings decline for American Idol, its most-watched programme.
Darnell said in a statement yesterday he will depart in June when his current deal expires even though the network offered him a new long-term contract. Fox, based in Los Angeles, didn't name a replacement.
Fox is losing a key executive as the network seeks to revive Idol, which had been TV's most popular show until last year. The show averaged 13.2 million viewers this season, a decline of 23 per cent from a year ago, according to Nielsen data. Darnell joined Fox in 1994 and developed specials that came to define the network, including When Animals Attack! and Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed, before reality shows became a mainstay.
"I've been in reality since before it was even called that, and it has truly been an amazing ride," Darnell said in the statement.
