Snoopy

The former top Hearst Corp entertainment exec left that gig in March and now has been hired as Vice Chairman at El Rey Network, the English-language cable network geared toward young adult audiences from Robert Rodriguez and John Fogelman and Cristina Patwa’s FactoryMade Ventures. The Comcast channel will launch in December. Before his job as President of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, Scott Sassa was President, NBC West Coast, from 1999-2002, President of the Turner Entertainment Group, launching TNT, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies during his tenure, and was was on the team that launched Fox Broadcasting Co. At Hearst, Sassa oversaw the company’s interests in ESPN, Lifetime and other networks including the History Channel. He brought Mark Burnett to the fold (Hearst owns 50% of Mark Burnett Prods) and was a producer on Burnett’s blockbuster History miniseries The Bible. El Rey’s first hire, Antoinette Alfonso Zel, is now Chief Marketing Officer.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson will star as a cartoon detective, with a pigeon as a sidekick, in a new animated series, U.S. cable network Adult Swim said on Friday.