Fuel TV announced today that its founding father CJ Olivares has chosen to step down to “pursue opportunities more closely related to the action sports genre to which he remains passionate.”
“CJ has worked tirelessly to make FUEL TV live up to its original mission of providing unique, male-oriented sports and entertainment programming with a distinctive voice,” said FOX Sports Media Group Chairman David Hill. “We thank him for his creativity and dedication, and appreciate his commitment to the action sports world in which he has unparalleled expertise. He will be missed.”
Olivares was the action sports heart and soul of the cable channel.
“It has been my honor and privilege to lead a team of dedicated and talented professionals at FUEL TV these last eight years,” offered Olivares. “As the network continues to evolve, I realize that my passion remains the action sports that were FUEL TV’s core and I now have the opportunity to explore the emerging possibilities in the expanding action-sports entertainment landscape.”
Kind of makes since now that Fuel is reportedly pulling away from some of the more core content and getting more into MMA and motorsports. Follow the jump for the official word from Fox.
OLIVARES STEPS DOWN AS FUEL TV GENERAL MANAGER
CJ Olivares, Executive Vice President and General Manager of FUEL TV, is leaving the network he helped launch eight years ago to pursue opportunities more closely related to the action sports genre to which he remains passionate. He stays on as a consultant to provide transitional support, with a focus on FUEL TV’s action sports programming and associated sponsor relationships.
A 20-year television veteran, Olivares is credited with creating the original vision, mission and programming mix that drove FUEL TV to its current position as the network with the highest concentration of young males in all of cable television.
“CJ has worked tirelessly to make FUEL TV live up to its original mission of providing unique, male-oriented sports and entertainment programming with a distinctive voice,” said FOX Sports Media Group Chairman David Hill. “We thank him for his creativity and dedication, and appreciate his commitment to the action sports world in which he has unparalleled expertise. He will be missed.”
Launched in July 2003 as an “action sports and lifestyle” cable network, FUEL TV’s demographic target has expanded over the last several months and as a result so has its programming philosophy. While FUEL TV continues to include sports like skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing and motocross in its male-focused programming mix, it has recently completed multiple development, production and program licensing deals that broadened its programming base.
Before joining FUEL TV, Olivares served as CEO of Broadband Interactive Group (BIG), a multi-media company, and also advised Extreme Group Ltd on their expansion into the action sports genre. He became director of operations for FSN predecessor Prime Sports’ Event Group in 1996, later becoming director of program development and acquisitions for FSN in 1997.
Olivares became editor of Triathlete Magazine in 1984, while also photographing sports, fashion and personalities for Nike, Oakley, Glamour, Sports Illustrated and CNN. He became editorial director of Triathlete in 1988 and then director of development for Inclyne Sports, a pioneer in packaging and producing sponsor-driven television events.
Nielson Media Research starts rating Fuel TV on March 28th.
On April 26th (about 30 days later) the founder “Steps Down”.
Interesting.
The two probably have nothing to do with each other, and it’s wrong to make assumptions without knowing the facts.
sounds like he was pushed out. a loss for fuel for sure, i’m suprised they aren’t already realizing that they are straying WAY too far away for their core audience to remain interested…
Fuel blows these days. Hard to find anything to watch.
I am officially cancelling my subscription today. Had been planning on doing it for awhile, but I can’t handle anymore of this MMA or motocross bull shit. What happened to a cool channel dedicated to skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing?
How the hell did that Frat Boy MMA shit encroach on our industry? Leave that crap to Grenade to flail on.
Very sad as the original format seemed to be really catching on in and now Fox is going in another direction
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