Caroline Baumgard’s acumen for developing and producing some of the most successful unscripted programming of all time, including Deal or No Deal, Fear Factor, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Wipeout, and Steve Harvey, has earned her the distinction of being one of the most prolific television studio executives over the past two decades.

She is one of the entertainment industry’s most respected providers of original content, producing award-winning unscripted series for broadcast network television, cable, syndication, and on-demand/subscription platforms. Baumgard has the rare ability to create original content for all reality genres.

Caroline Baumgard joined A. Smith and Co. in October 2019 as CEO. Prior to joining A. Smith & Co., Baumgard was at Banijay Studios North America where she helped launch the studio in 2014 and served as Chief Creative Officer for five years. During her time Baumgard created three network series, including Big Fan, Child Support, and Don’t. All sold to ABC Broadcast Network. 

Her first idea at Banijay was to expand the Jimmy Kimmel Live segment Who Knows Katy? into Big Fan, an original primetime game show where celebrities compete against their biggest fans. Episodes included A-list talent Matthew McConaughey, Kim Kardashian-West, and others. She served as executive producer alongside Jimmy Kimmel.

She broke new ground for BSNA a second time by attracting major talent to Child Support, a game show she created, which features Ricky Gervais and is hosted by Fred Savage. Baumgard served as executive producer alongside Gervais. 

She also created Don’t, an original comedic physical competition she sold with Ryan Reynolds attached as an Executive Producer and Adam Scott as host. Baumgard serves as executive producer alongside Reynolds.

While at Banijay, Baumgard also developed, sold, and executive produced hit reboots of both Wife Swap (Paramount) and Temptation Island (USA). Both picked up for second seasons

Prior to Banijay, Baumgard’s sense of story, creative strategy, and keen aptitude for finding talent helped to build one of the most successful independent content studios in the world, Endemol USA, which she joined when the company launched in March 2001.

During her 13-year tenure at Endemol, Baumgard served as Executive Vice President of Development and developed and sold all of Endemol USA’s original unscripted series, including the two-time Emmy-award-winning series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC) and the hit competition series Wipeout (ABC). 

She spearheaded all non-scripted development, including original idea generation, adapting international formats for the U.S. marketplace, and overseeing all pilots as well as many series productions for network, cable, and syndication. 

Baumgard has sold to every broadcast network, almost all cable networks, and to first-run syndication. Highlights include the hit game show Deal or No Deal, which aired on NBC for four seasons (300 episodes) and consistently ranked as one of the network’s highest-rated shows. Other network shows that Baumgard developed and received multiple season orders for include Fear Factor (NBC), Love in the Wild (NBC), 1 vs. 100 (NBC), and many more.

Her eye for talent brought Ty Pennington to Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which aired for nine seasons on ABC. She also introduced Endemol USA into the syndicated daytime space by bringing Steve Harvey to Endemol USA and creating his daytime format. She executive produced the pilot and launched what became Steve Harvey, the two-time Daytime Emmy-award-winning series.

Baumgard’s push to get Endemol USA into cable was solidified by developing and selling successful series, including Jerseylicious, which aired on Style for six seasons and became one of the network’s highest-rated shows with spin-offs including Glam Fairy and Chicagolicious.

Prior to joining Endemol USA, Baumgard worked in talent development at Telepictures. Before that she worked on the start-up of the NBC daytime soap opera Passions. Baumgard began her career as an NBC page in Burbank, CA.

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