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THE 130 MOST INSPIRING ASIAN AMERICANS
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Andrea Wong

on't let anyone tell you that your B.S. in electrical engineering from MIT and Stanford MBA just aren't worth the sheepskin they're printed on.

     Look at Andrea Wong. She reverse-leveraged those degrees into a research gopher gig at ABC 14 years ago, then clawed her way up to head that network's reality and late-night shows. Wong is credited with firing up ABC's ratings with hot reality shows like Dancing with the Stars, The Bachelor and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. On April 26, 2007 Wong was tapped to infuse life into the Lifetime Network which went from the top of the cable heap to sixth place the past several years.

     It didn't hurt that Wong had become a favorite of Robert Iger, CEO of Disney which, together with Hearst, co-owns Lifetime. Wong admits she didn't just wait for the job but lobbied for it after she had recently been passed up for the job of TLC president and general manager. When she got the job, she was expected to move in a hurry to New York. "It happened very, very quickly," Wong told Anne Becker of Broadcast Newsroom. Apparently she was hired just as Betty Cohen was forced out on April 25 after unveiling Lifetime's programming slate for the coming year. "Yesterday was obviously a crazy day!" Wong says.

     Wong joined ABC in 1993 to work as a researcher for ABC News PrimeTime Live. She then moved up to executive assistant. Wong's most notable achievement was bringing in The Bachelor in 2002. That became a genre-starter, spawning sister show The Bachelorette and 12 different editions around the world. In large part due to that success, Wong was promoted to head of reality/specials/late-night in May of 2004.

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