Talent Relations Exec Deirdre Dod Exits ‘The Talk’ for SiriusXM

By Variety Staff

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Deirdre Dod, longtime talent producer at CBS daytime show “The Talk,” has left her position to join SiriusXM as senior director of talent relations. Based out of the satellite giant’s new Los Angeles complex, she will lead the talent department for SiriusXM’s west coast studios and the shows that broadcast from there.

Dod will report directly to Ross Zapin, senior vice president and general manager of west coast operations.

Via her position at JB Talent, Dod spent five-and-a-half years at “The Talk” booking such guests and performers as Cher, Lionel Richie, Shania Twain, Stevie Nicks, Khalid and Charlie Puth, among many others. In addition, she booked musical guests and guest co-hosts on Fox’s “American Idol”, VH-1’s “Hip Hop Squares,” ABC’s “To Tell The Truth,” an NBC primetime special for Red Nose Day, Kevin Hart’s “What The Fit” on YouTube and NBC’s “New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly.”

Announcing the news on social media on Monday, Dod wrote: “Friday marked an end of an era for me. It was hands down the hardest decision that I’ve ever had to make in my career. … ‘The Talk’ and JB [Talent] have become family to me so I won’t say goodbye because family doesn’t do that. Leaving in such unprecedented times has made this so much harder.”

Dod, whose resume includes an eight-year run at “Late Night With David Letterman” along with positions at Showtime, ABC and Arista Records, had previously worked with SiriusXM as a producer on “Rosie Radio.” Dod and Rosie O’Donnell go back to “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” for which Dod booked music over a seven-year span.