Davies and his team at NY-based Embassy Row focus on producing smart and alternative content for broadcast and cable networks and the Internet. Moreover, Davies specializes in working with a select group of UK-based production companies to successfully launch their formats and build their businesses in the highly competitive U.S. market. With the continued success of Emmy Award-winning Millionaire in syndication and Wife Swap (with RDF Media) in primetime, Davies has firmly established himself as one of the leaders in the alternative and reality television business. 2007 has proven to be the biggest year ever for Davies. With two brand new offices in New York City, fully equipped with an interactive studio and editing facilities, Embassy Row has divided its operations into four divisions: Entertainment and Interactive, Factual, Sports and Film. The Entertainment and Interactive arm (incorporating the business-driving game show unit) currently has numerous projects in production, including: Power of 10, the major game show for CBS primetime; The 9, Yahoo’s cutting-edge, daily entertainment-driven consumer guide to pop culture, exclusively sponsored by Pepsi that was named as one of TIME Magazine’s “50 Coolest Websites of 2006”; Grand Slam, the fast paced game show for GSN; season 2 of The World Series of Pop Culture for VH1 and season 2 of Chain Reaction for GSN. Embassy Row Factual is producing two highly successful series for The Food Network and has sold its first interactive project to Yahoo!. Embassy Row Sports, on the heels of its production of Fast Cars and Superstars: Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, a major sporting show for ABC primetime, has also produced The PDC US Open for Versus and The World Darts Challenge for FSN. Embassy Row Films is about to announce a production with a major broadcaster and film studio; its first project since Once In A Lifetime. In 2006, Davies expanded his business by joining forces with web giant Yahoo! to produce original content for the Internet. Most notably is The 9. Other content has included American Idol Buzz Session, a show that recaps the five most buzz worthy American Idol topics from each week’s Performance episode, Talent Show, an online video contest dedicated to discovering the hottest original talent on the Internet and Hook Me Up, an informative, weekly reality show featuring a tech-impaired individual undergoing a technology makeover, exclusively sponsored by Verizon Wireless. Moreover, in 2006, powered by an overall deal with Sony and GSN, Davies expanded his range of alternative programming with such projects as: TheWorld Series of Darts, a major sporting event for ESPN and Keith Barry: Extraordinary, a primetime celebrity magic special for CBS. In 2005, Embassy Row consolidated their television development in New York and broached new territory with a wide range of innovative projects. In addition to the summer series, My Kind Of Town, under the company’s first look deal with ABC, Davies made a long desired entry into the world of documentary film with the release of First Descent, the completion of Once In A Lifetime (with Passion Pictures and GreeneStreet) and the television series Iconoclasts for The Sundance Channel (with Radical Media). The company also teamed with Pepsi and Yahoo! to make its first venture in the web and new media with “100 Concerts in 100 Days,” a music-driven nationwide road trip documented in a series of webisodes. Before founding Embassy Row in 2005, Davies was Founder and President of Diplomatic, where he produced multiple projects including ESPN’s popular game show 2 Minute Drill and The WB’s game show/reality hybrid Studio 7. Prior to the formation of Diplomatic, Davies served as Executive Vice President, Alternative Series and Specials, for ABC Entertainment, where he oversaw the development of the Daytime Emmy- and TV Guide Award-winning U.S. version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, the popular David Blaine magic specials, the original pilot for The Man Show (which ran for seven seasons on Comedy Central) and the 1998 and 1999 Academy Awards. He joined the network in January 1998. Davies joined ABC from Buena Vista Productions, where he was Senior Vice President, Development, responsible for developing all first-run syndication, cable and network programming. Davies had been with Buena Vista Productions since 1992, shepherding such projects as the late night talk-variety program The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show; the television adaptation of the feature hit, Honey, I Shrunk The Kids; the Emmy Award-winning Comedy Central series Win Ben Stein’s Money; the Lifetime hit game show, Debt, which won a CableACE Award for Best Game Show in 1996; the Emmy-winning children’s series Disney Presents Bill Nye the Science Guy and the original development of the Survivor format in the US (with UK indie Planet 24). Before joining Buena Vista, Davies worked with dick clark productions, inc., PBS and Merv Griffin Enterprises. Outside of his television career, Davies has also pursued a sideline as a sportswriter having covered the 2002 and 2006 World Cups in a widely read online blog for espn.com’s critically acclaimed Page 2. Davies earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts degree in law and history from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and began his career at Academy Films in London.. View More: Board Of Directors | NATPE Staff | International Contacts |
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Instrumental in bringing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire to U.S. television, on which he continues to serve as Executive Producer, Davies has been a key figure in transforming the television landscape and bringing alternative ideas to the mainstream.
