Rory Callaghan is executive producer of Seven’s Dancing with the Stars,
a gig he won by virtue of his role as managing director of UK-owned production
house, Granada Productions.

Granada’s UK parent is now part of the ITV group, and it’s a major
shareholder in Seven (11%), but there were no favours for the group. It
had to pitch hard to get Dancing with the Stars
in at Seven. And it’s a good thing for them they said yes – the show attracted 2.33 million
viewers on Tuesday night and saw
Seven win the night by 13 points.

Anyway Rory Callaghan has an additional reason to be happy. He’s
another in the growing list of former Nine executives or producers now
helping bash his former employer. Rory Callaghan was the executive in
charge of light entertainment (The NRL Footy Show was one of his gigs)
at Nine but left in the now usual style of the current
Nine management back in 2003.


Dancing is based on a UK program that Granada produces with the BBC.
Its success has forced Nine, the great TV imitator, into signing up two new celebrity-style programs: the fat farm-based Makeover and the upcoming Celebrity Circus.

Callaghan joins Peter Meakin, David
Leckie, John Stephens, Kris Noble and Hugh Marks on the list of former Nine employees who have scored
significant victories over the network in their new jobs.