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MTV has promoted Jackie French to Svp series development. French, described as a driving force behind such MTV hits as Jersey Shore and The Real World, will continue to oversee creative development and production on a number of MTV series, including Jersey Shore, on which she serves as an executive producer, and The Real World, now in its 25th season. French, previously VP, MTV series production, reports to Chris Linn, Evp, MTV Programming and Head of Production. Spike TV has named Chris Rantamaki VP original series. He will oversee the development of non-scripted series, reporting to Sharon Levy, Evp, original series and animation. Rantamaki comes from Discovery Channel, where he was VP of production and oversaw such series as Auction Kings, The Colony, Howe & Howe Tech and Gang Wars.

By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith

HollywoodNews.com: Real guy reality show king Thom Beers has a packed agenda this week – he’s heading north for a meeting with all the sea captains on his wildly popular “Deadliest Catch” show, then onward to confab with the team getting ready for the next season of “Ice Road Truckers.” And then he’ll be heading south, where, he reports, preparation is underway for what sounds like it could be the next big ticket Beers show, in West Virginia and Kentucky.

“It’s a pilot. I can’t talk much about it yet,” he says.

Hot environment, or cold?

“Cold,” he laughs. “We’re actually going into a hole in the ground We’re going to be down there with the coal miners. It’s a whole different world.”

Which is how the preternaturally peppy Beers likes it.

“I love getting out there.

In April 2009, Discovery Channel premiered "Pitchmen," a reality series, created by Thom Beers ("Deadliest Catch," "The Colony"), that followed the exploits of two Florida-based infomercial producers and personalities, best pals and partners Billy Mays Jr. and Anthony "Sully" Sullivan.

The show was an immediate success, but the happiness turned to grief when Mays died suddenly on June 28, 2009, at the age of 50, less than a week after appearing with Sullivan on "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien."

This threw the future of the show into question. It's taken a while to, first, decide if there should be a show without Mays; second, decide what shape that show should take; and third, actually produce the episodes.

But on Thursday, Aug. 19, Discovery premieres the 10-episode second season of "Pitchmen," focusing on Sullivan, with appearances by Mays' son, Billy Mays III, who works with Sullivan off-camera.

"Young Billy Mays is doing great," says Sullivan,...

BFFs Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus each earn equally one spot at the Young Artist Awards this year under the television category. The first two are included for their roles in TV movie "Princess Protection Program" while Miley is in for her leading role on "Hannah Montana".

In terms of the number, it is Miranda Cosgrove and her show "iCarly" that earn the most. Beside the actress herself who is nominated for Best Performance in a TV Series by a Leading Actress, the whole cast are nominated for Outstanding Young Performers in a TV Series. Additionally, Nathan Kress and Joey Luthman land a nod each in supporting actor and recurring categories respectively.

However, Nate Hartley adds one for "Hannah Montana" in the guest starring category. As for Gomez's "Wizards of Waverly Place", it is Jake T. Austin who gets a nod, while as for Lovato's "Sonny with a Chance...

Despite the death of crab-boat Capt. Phil Harris, Discovery Channel's "The Deadliest Catch," which launches its sixth season in April, will likely get a seventh season, because, as executive producer Thom Beers points out, it's an "ensemble show."

But the reality hit "PitchMen," which premiered to great ratings on Discovery in April 2009, didn't have an ensemble in its first season. It was a buddy show, featuring the professional and personal relationship of infomercial kings Billy Mays and Anthony "Sully" Sullivan, as they crafted ads to showcase the work of entrepreneurs and inventors.

Mays' sudden death on June 28, at the age of 50, threw the future of the show into doubt. Questions were raised whether the show would continue with Sullivan alone, whether Mays' twentysomething son, Billy Mays III, would be involved, and, indeed, whether the show would continue at all.

Last July, Discovery announced the show would return, but little has been announced since then.

Watching The Colony, the new Discovery show from Deadliest Catch's Thom Beers in which 10 strangers will survive for 10 weeks in a post-catastrophe Los Angeles, you realize what it's like to feel terrified and useless. Or, at least I do. I just sit there asking myself questions, like: • Can you imagine if this show had been on Fox instead of Discovery? Gone would be the people with actual skills (engineers, a doctor, an ER nurse, a contractor ex-con, etc.), and in would come the contestants from Paradise Hotel (which, full disclosure, I was also once obsessed with). • What exactly would I bring to the table? It's kinda sad when you realize that there isn't a spot for "conversationalist" in the Sanctuary, the abandoned factory the volunteers are squatting in, because the shows' experts know you wouldn't have made it through the apocalypse. Had I somehow survived and convinced the survivors...