By Valerie Milano
Senior Editor, The Hollywood Times
Los Angeles, CA 6/12/25 – For anyone who’s spent time in the orbit of the Television Critics Association, the name John Solberg carries weight—respect, warmth, and professional excellence. For me, it carries even more: decades of camaraderie, mutual admiration, and shared history. That’s why the news of John stepping down from his role as Executive Vice President of Publicity at FX hits with a particular poignancy.
After more than 28 years helping shape the FX brand—21 of those alongside chairman John Landgraf—Solberg has announced he’ll be exiting the network when his contract concludes in January 2026. It’s not part of broader layoffs at Disney, nor the result of a buyout offer. Instead, as John shared in a heartfelt internal memo, it’s simply the right time.
And for those of us who have worked with John—whether in press rooms, hotel ballrooms, red carpets, or quiet email threads late at night—it’s hard to imagine FX without him. Like Landgraf, who coined the phrase “Peak TV,” Solberg has been a defining figure behind the scenes, helping to elevate the network’s prestige and amplify its groundbreaking storytelling to the world.
“Since FX launched our original programming brand two and a half decades ago, our creative partners and shows could not have had a better advocate than John Solberg,” Landgraf said in a statement. “His honesty, genuine passion for stories, and respect for journalism have been foundational to FX’s relationship with the press.”
Those sentiments echo my own. John never treated publicity as spin—he treated it as a bridge between creators and the public, and more importantly, between networks and journalists. That bridge was always built on trust. As a colleague at TCA and beyond, John was the rare executive who actually made our jobs easier, not harder – with a good scotch in hand.
In his farewell message to staff, John called his time at FX “magical,” crediting the network’s culture and the caliber of its storytelling as unrivaled. He named the many visionary leaders he worked under—including Ellen Cooper, Mark Sonnenberg, Peter Liguori, and of course, Landgraf—and praised his publicity team as “the most supremely skilled” in the business.
John’s love for his team and FX’s creative partners is palpable in every line of his letter. “We are only as good as our shows,” he wrote. “I’ve been blessed to work on some of the most acclaimed, groundbreaking, and culture-defining shows in TV history.”
Always the communicator, John also offered a rare and genuine shout-out to journalists—reminding everyone that while press and PR may occasionally disagree, good journalism still matters. “They are vital, independent arbiters of our performance,” he wrote. “Scorecards matter.”
Beyond the career, John’s note touched on personal resilience. His gratitude to his late wife Maeve—an accomplished news producer and his “professional cheat code”—was deeply moving. He spoke of the strength he found in his family, and the support extended to him by colleagues at Disney and beyond during the past six years of personal loss. That kind of openness isn’t typical in an industry that often prides itself on armor. But John has never been typical.
As he prepares to step into a new chapter, there’s no doubt he leaves behind a legacy that is both professional and profoundly human. FX, with all its prestige dramas and cultural edge, has always stood apart. And for over two decades, John Solberg was part of the reason why.
I’ll miss him at press tour, well hell, I miss press tour. I’ll miss the candor, the laugh, and the rare sincerity he brought to every exchange. But more than anything, I’m grateful to have worked alongside him—and proud to call him a friend.
