Scott Garner is Senior Vice President, Programming, Disney Channel, a role he was promoted to in July 2005. He oversees the planning and scheduling of all kids TV content on four networks: Disney Channel, Toon Disney, ABC Family and the ABC Television Network's Saturday morning daypart, ABC Kids.
Garner is responsible for the planning and scheduling of over 360 programmable hours each week on the cable and broadcast television platforms. His scheduling purview covers all originally-produced series, movies, on-air promos and interstitials, plus the sourcing, negotiation and acquisition of long and short-form kids programming content for Disney ABC Television Group. This includes Disney Channel's learning-focused preschooler block, Playhouse Disney, and the action/adventure Jetix-branded blocks on Toon Disney and ABC Family. He is also responsible for the scheduling of all on-air promos and advertising traffic for Toon Disney and Jetix, working closely with Advertising Sales, Marketing and Promotions and On-Air Operations. Last year, he added programming oversight of emerging non-linear platforms including the Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) service, Disney Channel on Demand.
A well-respected kids TV veteran, Garner was Vice President, Program Planning and Scheduling, Disney Channel, since March 2003. He engineered the primetime schedule that took Disney Channel to #1 with Kids 6-14, from #8 to #3 in Households and from #7 to #3 in Total Viewers among all basic cable competition. He helped set the strategy that quickly made hits out of "That's So Raven," "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody," "Kim Possible" and "Lizzie McGuire," among others. He is a key contributor to the tremendous success of the Disney Channel Original Movie franchise, particularly the premiere weekend strategy where Disney Channel regularly dominates basic cable and broadcast television viewing among its core demographic, kids and tweens, and often, emerges as #1 in basic cable households and total viewers.
An integral member of the Playhouse Disney programming team, Garner's team is responsible for the planning and scheduling of its increasingly successful daily schedule which he has complemented with several acquisitions including "The Doodlebops," "This is Daniel Cook" and "The Wiggles."
From February 2002-March 2003, he was Executive Director, Planning and Scheduling, Disney Channel. He joined Disney Channel as Director, Research, in December 1999 after being recruited from Cartoon Network where he was Director, Research since May 1997. He spent two seasons working on Nickelodeon's "Blues' Clues" and began his career as a production researcher at Children's Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop).
A native of Gainesville, Georgia, Garner has a Master of Arts degree in Communications from Columbia University and Bachelor of Arts degree in English and French from Emory University.