Fulwell 73 Productions has taken a minority stake in Jesse Collins Entertainment, creating an alliance between the two leading production companies.
The two companies have worked together previously on the 2021 and 2022 Grammy Awards. Each entity will continue to produce independently but will collaborate when appropriate opportunities arise. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Jesse Collins Entertainment remains a majority Black-owned company.
“We are so delighted to be creating this alliance with Jesse Collins Entertainment,” said Leo Pearlman and Ben Winston, who founded Fulwell 73 Productions in 2005 with Ben Turner and Gabe Turner (James Corden joined as a fifth partner in 2017) in a statement. “Having already worked so closely with Jesse and his team on the Grammys, we have seen firsthand their creativity, originality and brilliance. This new relationship is an incredibly exciting moment for both companies.”
Founded in 2012, Jesse Collins Entertainment (JCE) is a powerhouse in the awards space, having worked on The American Music Awards, BET Awards, Soul Train Awards, BET Honors, the Grammy Awards and the 2021 Academy Awards, which Collins produced (along with Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh). JCE’s scripted division has also produced a number of scripted and unscripted series, including Real Husbands of Hollywood, American Soul, The New Edition Story, The Bobby Brown Story and Cardi Tries. The Emmy-nominated company has a multi-year overall agreement with ViacomCBS Cable Networks.
“Ben, Leo, Ben, Gabe and James have been nothing but supportive of JCE over the years and we are thrilled at the opportunity to have some Fulwell 73 fuel to grow the scripted, unscripted and specials divisions of our JCE machine,” said JCE founder/CEO Collins and JCE executive vp, content & strategy Dionne Harmon in a statement.
The 2021 Grammy Awards were the 17th Grammy production Collins had worked on and his first as co-executive producer with Raj Kapoor. For 2022, he returned as executive producer with Kapoor and Winston, while Fulwell 73 Productions served as producer of the show.
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Collins’ company has excelled during COVID-19, setting new standards for what awards shows could accomplish despite all the obstacles imposed by the pandemic — and many of those creative ideas have grown as the country has emerged from the pandemic. As he told Billboard prior to the 2021 Grammys, “The mantra we’ve been working under is, “There’s no excuses.” You can’t put something on television and say, “This would have been great, but COVID-19 made it hard.” I think people are forgiving with certain things, and for a while they were accepting things on Zoom. But even when you did something on Zoom, it still had to have something that made it worth watching.”
In addition to producing the 2021 and 2022 Grammy Awards, recent Fulwell 73 Productions programming include Adele One Night Only and An Audience with Adele, for CBS and ITV, respectively, Hulu’s reboot of The Kardashians, and HBO Max’s Friends: The Reunion. Fulwell is the longtime producer of CBS’ The Late Late Show with James Corden and Carpool Karaoke: The Series, from AppleTV+.
Fulwell 73 Productions was repped in the deal by Michael Brader of Wiggin and Mara P. Canner of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.
Jesse Collins Entertainment was repped in the deal by Evolution Media Capital, Paul S. Bernstein and Nick Jacobus for Venable, LLP and Stephen D. Barnes for Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Krintzman, Rubenstein, Kohner, Endlich & Gellman.
