Dana Walden, Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman, is seen as a frontrunner for the next Disney CEO. There is good reason for that.
Walden oversees Disney’s full portfolio of entertainment media, news, and content businesses globally, including Disney’s streaming business. Walden leads Disney’s content brands and businesses, including ABC Entertainment, ABC News, ABC Owned Television Stations, Disney Branded Television, Disney Television Studios, Freeform, FX, Hulu Originals, National Geographic Content, and Onyx Collective. She also oversees the marketing, operations, distribution, and business groups across these brands and has shared oversight of direct-to-consumer, technology, and ad sales groups, as well as international content and operations.
Under Walden’s leadership, ABC has secured its position as the number-one entertainment network for four consecutive seasons — the first time that has happened in more than 25 years.
Since she began overseeing Hulu’s signature Original series in 2019, the streamer has seen record viewership for such hits as The Handmaid’s Tale, The Kardashians and Only Murders in the Building. Additionally, ABC News continues to dominate as the #1 news network in America, with such iconic programs as 20/20, Good Morning America, Nightline, and World News Tonight.
Walden has overseen the development and production of some of the most celebrated shows in the history of the television industry, including 24, Glee, Grey’s Anatomy, Homeland, and This Is Us; culture-defining franchises like American Horror Story, black-ish, Family Guy and The Simpsons; unscripted stalwarts like American Idol, Dancing With The Stars and Jimmy Kimmel Live!; children’s programming like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Bluey, the number one most-watched series for kids in 2023; and the most current breakout hits, Shōgun, Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Dropout.
In 2024, programming under Walden’s oversight earned an impressive 395 Emmy nominations and 116 wins across daytime, primetime, children & family, and news & documentary categories. Throughout her career, teams under Walden’s supervision have been responsible for programs that have won more than 1,000 awards.
Walden previously served as chairman of Disney General Entertainment Content overseeing original entertainment and news programming for Disney’s streaming platforms, broadcast, and cable networks. Prior to joining Disney, Walden was CEO of Fox Television Group, which included Fox Broadcasting Company, 20th Century Fox Television, Fox 21 Television Studios, Fox Consumer Products, and the syndication supplier, 20th Television. In the four years she oversaw Fox Broadcasting Company, she took the network from fourth place to first. During her 25 years at 21st Century Fox, the studios overseen by Walden amassed 184 Emmy wins, 29 Golden Globes, 17 Screen Actors Guild Awards and 24 Peabody Awards and Humanitas Prizes.
In 2021, Walden was given a Lifetime Achievement Award from Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business. She has received the National Association of Television Program Executive’s Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award and was named MIPCOM’s Personality of the Year. Just recently, she was honored as a CNBC Changemaker, a distinction that recognizes women who are transforming business. She sits on the board of directors for UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Saban Free Clinic of Los Angeles. Additionally, Walden is also a member of USC’s President’s Leadership Council and the President’s Circle of the NAACP. She also was appointed by President Biden to the President’s Export Council, the national advisory committee on international trade.
Walden also lives near Disney CEO Bob Iger. During one of their walks, Walden was the one who asked Iger if he had any interest of coming back. Walden planned another “walk” for Iger one day, and she never had any intention of taking the “walk.” She made the “walk” so Iger would be available to take a call from then Disney Chairman of the Board Susan Arnold. The call resulted in Iger’s return. Walden is credited with an assist.
Will Iger’s thank you for his second run by helping Dana Walden become his successor? That would be what we call a full-circle moment. Disney CEO Bob Iger actually called Dana Walden on the day of the Disney-Fox deal announcement in December 2017 to let her know he wanted her to come to Disney. Walden hoped she’d run Disney’s TV unit as a direct report to Iger after the Fox deal. Iger wanted Peter Rice for the top job. Walden considered walking away from Disney for other opportunities but ultimately decided to stay.
The Iger and Walden relationship has always been strong.
Walden also has some notable supporters across Hollywood.
“She’s the single best talent exec to come out of TV in the last 20 years,” Peter Chernin, former Fox exec and CEO of The Chernin Group, told CNBC in an interview. “The business is changing so rapidly. That company is going to change so much,” Chernin continued to CNBC. “Someone is going to have to imagine what a media company of the future looks like. Bob [Iger] is going through that right now. He’s actively spending every day thinking that through. The most important part of that company is ongoing relationships with customers.”
Can Walden imagine “a media company of the future” and more importantly a Disney without Bob Iger? Walden has great relationships in the industry and she’s also acknowledged some of Disney’s key blind spots. In an interview with Bloomberg, she admits that Disney+ needs a better recommendation algorithm so engagement is higher. Walden wants Disney+ to have the best-in-class algorithm and be targeted in its recommendations to subscribers.
She has many supporters and her detractors usually mention that she is a creative that lacks business/operating experience. However, there are plenty of people who have defended Walden’s business acumen and her personal leadership skills.
“There’s something about looking at female execs where questions are asked that would never be asked of men,” Jennifer Salke, the head of Amazon Studios and a former colleague of Walden’s, told CNBC. “Can they scale? Can a creative person be a business leader? I find that to be a huge bugaboo. She’s in charge of billions of dollars of assets, but she’s not capable of being a business leader?”
“Hollywood is a business of relationships,” Modern Family co-creator Steve Levitan told CNBC. “What you can’t teach somebody is how to inspire people. She is whip smart. If there is a subject that she needs to take a deep dive on, she’s going to be an expert in that subject before you know it.”
“I have a lot of respect for her,” David Madden, who worked with Walden when he was president of Fox Television Studios, told The Hollywood Reporter. “I thought she was really skillful, bouncing from a detailed creative problem to a sophisticated negotiating issue to a larger corporate agenda she had to fulfill. If she ends up getting Iger’s job, she would end up doing a great job.”
“She would be an outstanding CEO,” Peter Roth, former president of 20th Century Fox Television told CNBC. “Absolutely outstanding.”
Dana Walden also has an extremely close relationship with prolific showrunner Ryan Murphy. Walden is actually the godmother to his three children. “There are not a lot of Dana Waldens out there. She’s changed the game for so many people,” Ryan Murphy tells Variety.
Murphy also likened his friend to Bob Iger when speaking to Vanity Fair in some not-so-subtle CEO campaigning, “Dana, like Bob, is a real star. When they walk into a room, the energy changes.”
When Disney succession is discussed, Dana Walden’s name is thrown around as the frontrunner. “The word about succession is that it’s all Dana all the time,” a top agent told Vanity Fair. Walden’s potential ascension to CEO has historical implications at play as well. If Dana Walden became CEO of Disney, she would be the first woman to run The Walt Disney Company. Sources close to Bob Iger say he would be thrilled on being the person to help that historic moment happen. Even a source close to Disney toldVanity Fair, “From an entertainment and creative perspective, Dana would be a fantastic choice — and a historic choice.”
However, on the other end of the spectrum, some are disputing the instant coronation of Dana Walden as Disney’s next CEO. A former Disney executive who worked closely with Walden told Vanity Fair, “I think she could be great, but it’s not going to be a slam dunk.” There’s been some hesitation around Walden as she came over to Disney during the 21st Century Fox deal. Walden came from a Fox culture that was vastly different from Disney’s.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Kim Masters also talked to an exec who made the case against Walden. Masters mentions how the exec says Walden “doesn’t have the operational experience to run a machine like Disney.” Masters also says this exec told her, “Disney does not run in her DNA” and “she’s fancy.”
Despite the criticism and questioning of her operational skills, there is no denying Dan Walden is a great creative exec with massive success in the television/streaming space. This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman recalls Dana Walden telling him, “I’m ready to make a bet on you. I want to give you the environment where you’re nurtured and protected and where the right decisions are made to support you.” Soon after Fogelman was told that by Walden he went on to create This Is Us which was a huge success on NBC. Fogleman even told Vanity Fair that the business needs more decision-makers that have firm points of view and are not afraid to state them.
“She’s got great instincts and great taste,” said Peter Roth, former president of 20th Century Fox Television who gave Walden her first job in programming told Reuters. “She is the real deal. And by the way, that’s the reason she has such extraordinary relationships, because these producers know that she is the real deal.”
“It was a big bet, and I needed her support in order to make it,” FX Chief Jon Landgraf, told Reuters regarding Shogun. “Without both Bob and Dana. Both of them had a really, really big hand in the events that allowed this to happen. I’m proud of our creative partners, but what enabled it was the right creative leadership.”
“One thing that writers have told me, even writers who don’t love notes, is when they are stuck or blocked, Dana takes the time to help them through it and always makes the script or project better,” William Morris Endeavor co-founder Rick Rosen, who worked alongside Walden on shows 24 and Homeland, told Vanity Fair. “Dana is, without question, one of the best creative executives in the business.”
One high-level producer recalled to Reuters how Hulu’s acclaimed comedy series Only Murders in the Building was originally pitched as featuring three older actors. Walden suggested casting a younger performer, a recommendation that led to the successful pairing of former Disney Channel star Selena Gomez with veteran comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short, the producer said.
“She doesn’t come to you with notes — she comes to you with feeling. She says, ‘I wish I felt more here,’ or ‘Maybe hold this feeling to another part of the script,’” Ryan Murphy tells Variety. “You never feel infantilized by a notes session with Dana; you feel through her you understand your target audience better, what they like, what they want to lean into. She always comes at every script, every cut, thinking like the audience you are trying to get.”
Dana Walden’s Fox career looms larger over her succession hopes. Fox’s corporate culture was vicious in its own ways. Disney’s culture is corporate but still cutthroat as well.
“At Fox, I always joke, we were raised by wolves,” Walden told Variety back in 2022. “It was a great culture where you had tremendous independence and autonomy. It wasn’t really a culture that prized collaboration. You were responsible for a bottom line. And how you got there was your business as long as you did so successfully. And that just doesn’t work in this new world.”
“The truth is that collaboration is a prized and encouraged practice at Disney,” Walden told Variety in 2022. “The real story is less palace intrigue and more about a group of executives determined to maintain Disney’s legacy of being the greatest storytelling company in the world.”
Dana Walden succeeding Bob Iger would be further justification for Disney’s purchase of 21st Century Fox. It would cement that deal being over the top worth it despite all its detractors. Walden’s elevation would be the anti-Chapek move and a major win for Hollywood. There’s a lot of pros when it comes to Walden potentially succeeding Iger.
Yet there is one con that many haven’t brought up about Walden that I want to explore.
She didn’t put herself out there over D23 weekend.
Walden could’ve made some fans whether it was doing a panel/presentation or just meeting with fans on the show floor. (If you by chance hung out with Dana Walden at the Anaheim Convention Center, let me know and I’ll edit this section out). It would’ve been an act of goodwill and just would’ve elevated her more in fan’s eyes.
Walden not taking the stage at the Honda Center seemed like a missed opportunity as well. She could’ve hyped how well her division was doing and more importantly, teased the future of Disney’s various TV efforts. The Honda Center was a prime opportunity to get in front of thousands of fans. Fellow succession candidates Alan Bergman and Josh D’Amaro took advantage of the opportunity. What was the hold-up for Walden?
Walden, 59, is a longtime TV executive with amazing relationships. Arguably she was the catalyst for Bob Iger’s big return. In the end, will she get the historic opportunity to lead the Mouse House? The Disney Board has some major decisions to make in the coming months.
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Zach Perilstein is the Editor-in-Chief of the Boardwalk Times
