Trio of Trio exex add Bravo duties

Klarman ,Tseng, Olson to work for both cablers

By JOHN DEMPSEY

Trio will share three of its executives with the network's older sibling Bravo as part of an unusual melding of two channels that program for similar audiences.

Lauren Zalaznick, president of Bravo and Trio, has named Jason Klarman senior VP of marketing and brand strategy for Bravo; he'll continues as senior VP of marketing for Trio.

Amelie Tseng will continue to do the publicity for Trio as she takes on new duties as VP of press and publicity for Bravo.

Jane Olson, creative director of Trio, will add the new post of VP-creative director at Bravo.

NBC Universal, which owns the two networks, is still trying to decide whether to keep pouring resources into the narrowly targeted Trio or to fold it. The network reaches only about 20 million subscribers, and its hip, snarky programming draws a small audience.

Most cable systems haven't rushed to embrace it, and when DirecTV did a huge deal for the NBC U cable networks a few months ago, Trio was significantly absent from the contract.

Ratings slippage

Bravo also has tailed off a bit after soaring in 2003 on the coattails of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." The Nielsens for "Queer Eye" have settled back down to earth, and Bravo fell 6% in primetime during the third quarter compared with the same period in 2003. The net's primetime rating dropped off 5% in adults 18-49.

Before joining Trio, Klarman was VP of marketing for Fox News and earlier was director of media relations for CNBC.

Tseng was head of public relations for Nickelodeon Intl. before she joined Trio in May 2001 as director of public relations and event publicity.

Trio hired Olson in October 2002 after her stint as creative director of on-air promotion and branding for AMC and WE: Women's Entertainment.