Interview with Jeremy Lowe, Talent & Partnerships at Dick Clark Productions
Jeremy Lowe is the Vice President of Talent and Partnerships at Dick Clark Productions, where he leads artist and creator booking for some of television's biggest live events including Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest (ABC), the American Music Awards (CBS), and the Golden Globes (CBS). Jeremy's path to VP is one of entertainment's great persistence stories: he cold-called the internship line as an incoming high school senior in 2009, eventually landed the role, and never left working his way from intern to full-time hire to executive over the course of 15+ years at the same company. In this interview, Jeremy shares how a pivot toward digital media early in his career shaped his entire approach to talent strategy, what it was like to bring BTS to their first U.S. award show, and why booking creators like Amelia Dimoldenberg and Matt Friend is now just as important as booking platinum-selling artists.
AvA: Before we begin, define your role and talk about what you’re doing day-to-day.
Lowe: I’m Vice President of Talent and Partnerships at Dick Clark Productions. I book musical artists and creators to take part in events such as Golden Globes (CBS), Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest (ABC), American Music Awards (CBS) and more.
My day usually has three parts – exploration, pitching and internal organization.
Exploration is listening to artists we’re considering booking, meeting with creators and strategizing on the mix of talent that will be featured at the respective show
Pitching is reaching out to artists we want to book, and also hearing pitches from artists that want to take part in our shows
Internal organization is crucial. This entails communicating to other departments about the status of bookings, running through agreements with legal, finalizing budgets and more
AvA: What was your first role in the industry, and what did you learn about yourself?
Lowe: I’ve been part of the Dick Clark Productions team since 2009 when I was a summer intern as an incoming high school senior. I enjoyed going to concerts and TV tapings, so I followed my passion and focused my internship search on companies in the live entertainment space. Dick Clark Productions hired interns and also happened to produce So You Think You Can Dance, one of my favorite shows at the time. I called the internship lead at Dick Clark Productions weekly and if I didn’t get through I left a voicemail, or sent an email follow up. I eventually heard back, got an interview and landed the internship. This taught me the power of persistence.
AvA: Is there one early-career move that actually changed your trajectory?
Lowe: When I was interning at Dick Clark Productions in 2009, they were just starting a digital department. Most other interns wanted to work in development, or programming, but I was really excited about social media and took an informational meeting with the Head of Digital. I ended up working on many projects with him over my two summers interning at Dick Clark Productions, and he hired me full-time at the company after I graduated from college.
My expertise in digital media is a key ingredient in how I book talent. I look for artists and creators who spark engagement and social conversation. One of the first artists we booked after I joined the talent booking and strategy side of the company was Sabrina Carpenter. She was seeing strong engagement for doing localized outros while performing her song “Nonsense” in different cities on tour. I wondered what her outro would be if she performed “Nonsense” live in Times Square for New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. We reached out and booked Sabrina to perform live in Times Square for New Year’s Eve going into 2024, right as she was becoming a global superstar.
AvA: If you could text yourself on your first day in this industry, what would it say?
Lowe: Be a specialist. You need a general understanding of the industry but the people who are the most successful are subject-matter experts.
AvA: What are the 3 ingredients that make a moment pop on social media?
Lowe: Being timely, having the right talent and keeping things simple. For the most recent New Year’s Rockin’ Eve we secured the only 2025 televised performance of Jess Glynne’s song “Hold My Hand” which was the popular song featured in the “nothing beats a jet2holiday” social media trend. I also booked 4 Non Blondes for their first televised performance of “What’s Up?" after the song was included in a viral TikTok audio trend, in which the song is mashed up with Nicki Minaj’s song “Beez In The Trap.” These show clips really popped on social media because you got to experience something memorable from the year, on a day when people want to look back.
AvA: What are a few projects or collabs you’re most proud of?
Lowe: Getting to bring BTS to America for their first-ever U.S. award show appearances in 2017. In the months ahead of the show, our team had noticed a massive spike in conversation on social media around the group potentially being nominated for one of our shows, the Billboard Music Awards. The group was ultimately nominated and from there we worked through the logistics of the group traveling from Korea to attend the show. I still remember walking up to the venue on show day and hearing how loud the screaming was. Following this appearance, we collaborated with BTS on their U.S. television performance debut later that year at the American Music Awards (AMAs). We worked closely with BTS on the AMAs - they invited us to cover their off-site rehearsals and created a merch collection with them. Now they are the biggest music group in the world.
Another big one was the first year we started to meaningfully lean into working with content creators at the Golden Globes. This was in 2023, when the show was returning from a one-year TV hiatus. As someone who is immersed in digital content, I had become familiar with Amelia Dimoldenberg and booked her as our Golden Globes red carpet, her first role of this kind in the United States. As part of the activation, Amelia interviewed Andrew Garfield and they had a truly flirtatious moment, which went super viral and led to massive exposure and new opportunities for her in the U.S. market.
The 2023 Golden Globes was also the first time we collaborated with comedian Matt Friend, who did impressions of celebrities while he was conducting interviews on the carpet. Austin Butler was on the awards circuit for Elvis that year and happened to recognize Matt from social media. Austin wasn’t doing any interviews on the carpet but saw Matt and had to stop by to talk with him and hear his Elvis Presley impression.
Both Amelia and Matt are now two of the most recognizable creators when it comes to media and award show coverage.
And I have to also include booking Jennifer Lopez to host the 2025 American Music Awards. Everyone has always called me J. Lowe, so getting to work with her and her team was a full circle moment.
AvA: Creators are now part of the awards show ecosystem. Can you share a bit more about how you engage creators around Dick Clark events?
Lowe: Creators are an evolution of media and reporting. At this year’s Golden Globes we had a creator marketing touch point for each element of the campaign. We partnered with Mary Beth Barone for red carpet interviews, which did really well. She wrote funny questions which delighted both the celebrities and viewers at home. One of my personal favorites was her interview with Wanda Sykes. Mary Beth starts by asking Wanda if “she’s tired from carrying the industry on her back for so long” and Wanda replies “Good lord…yes.” While the two had never met before, Mary Beth used her first question as an opportunity to build rapport and set the comedic tone for the rest of the interview.
Beyond our work with Mary Beth, we partnered with NowThis’ Are You Okay show on lead-up content at our First Time Nominee Luncheon. Golden Globes host Nikki Glaser took part in videos with Connor Wood and Oz The Mentalist ahead of the show. And we invited a range of creators from Haley Kalil to Olandria Carthen, who were posting photos and videos in real-time, documenting their experience of walking the red carpet and attending the on-site viewing party.
We know if it’s a great creator partnership quickly. The key metrics we look at are engagement, sentiment of comments and any earned media/press coverage.
AvA: When data disagrees with taste, especially when booking talent for events like New Year's Rockin' Eve, who wins?
Lowe: It’s a balance. I’m a huge believer in personal taste that can be supported by data. For the most recent New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, we booked 42 artists, so you’re able lean into both data and taste.
With New Year’s Rockin’ Eve our biggest goals are to keep viewers watching and to have a show that families can watch together. So we try to have a little bit of something for everyone. Where else can you see Chappell Roan, Mariah Carey, Pitbull and Rick Springfield all performing on the same show?
My favorite bookings are when you book someone and then between booking and airing, something massive happens in their career. We had Diana Ross confirmed to headline this year’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and unbeknownst to us, her song “Upside Down” had a major placement in the new Stranger Things season which came out around the time of our show. Streams of the song and Diana Ross’ monthly Spotify listeners shot up. While no one can argue with Diana Ross’ icon status, the Stranger Things connection gave the booking a major sense of timeliness.
AvA: Can you share a bit more about the timeline of putting together a live award show / event?
Lowe: Working in live entertainment means that there is always a deadline. The clock is always ticking.
Three weeks before a show might not seem like a long time but in what I call “award show time” that’s an eternity. Between then and show night, you’ll add performers, artists will change what songs are being performed and some may revamp their on-stage creative. Some items are planned far ahead of time – show date, location, key team members and some take shape up until the day of.
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