Former WB exec named head of programming/MTV

Susanne Daniels, former chief of programming at the old WB, has been tapped to run the great programming machine at MTV. One can advisedly, cautiously, tentatively laud this appointment as a very good omen for MTV -- which has been riding on the fumes of "Jersey Shore" for possibly a bit too long.

Daniels was (and presumably still is) a talented talent magnet who knew how to craft, or at least program, good, compulsively watchable series like "Smallville" and "Dawson's Creek." "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," a TV classic, and minor classic, "Gilmore Girls," also aired on her watch. MTV overlord Van Toffler said in a statement suffused with both hyperbole and truth: 

Meanwhile, she replaces David Janollari, who once had his own good run at the WB and was a longtime production colleague of Bob Greenblatt, who now runs NBC Entertainment. The press release grimly noted that he had decided "not to renew his contract." Janollari had one solid hit during his two-year tenure ("Teen Wolf") but also slotted the not-quite-a-fiasco-but-still-bad "Skins."