Preston Beckman, Fox scheduling head, moving to advisory role

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Preston Beckman, the well-regarded head of scheduling for Fox Broadcasting, will be stepping back from his current position to take on a more strategic role within parent company News Corp.

The wry Beckman, known not only for his programming acumen but also lately for his snarky Twitter persona ‘Masked Scheduler,’ will give up day-to-day oversight of Fox’s scheduling as its executive vice president of strategic program planning and research at the end of this TV season in May. He will then become senior strategist for the Fox Networks Group, which includes not only Fox, but many of its cable channels, including FX.

‘His strategic mind and love of television make him the Muhammad Ali of scheduling executives,’ said Fox Networks Group Entertainment Chairman Peter Rice. ‘Fox has been incredibly fortunate to have Preston guiding our schedule for the past decade and seven consecutive years of No. 1 finishes.”

Beckman has been at Fox for 11 years and has indicated that he has been getting ready to move beyond the day-to-day pressures of scheduling a network.

Prior to joining Fox, Beckman spent 20 years at NBC in scheduling. During much of that time, the network was on top of the ratings.

-- Joe Flint

This post was corrected to reflect that National Geographic Channel is not part of the Fox Networks Group unit.