Last summer, Nancy Daniels ’94 was one of a thousand guests who attended Jill Duggar’s wedding in Arkansas. Duggar is part of the large, conservative family made famous by the show 19 Kids and Still Counting, which has been on the air for nearly a decade.

“For viewers, watching the wedding was like seeing an old friend get married,” Daniels said.

For Daniels, it was just another off-beat moment in a career that began in the early days of reality television. 

After graduating from IC, Daniels began work as a freelance producer on nonfiction cable programs, which eventually led to her working on the first three seasons of Big Brother on CBS. When the show’s executive producer recommended her for an executive job at CBS, her career kicked into gear. She had opportunities to work on Survivor and oversaw The Amazing Race, which proved to be a race for production staff, too. “Once the starting gun went off, there was nothing you could do. You just had to hope you could stay ahead of [the contestants] as it was going,” Daniels said of the experience. “I got to see the world [working] on that show.” 

From CBS, Daniels went to the Discovery family of networks and her first stint with TLC as a senior vice president of production and development. From there she spent three years as executive vice president on the Discovery channel, where she produced two specials she’s particularly proud of, “All the President’s Men Revisited” with Robert Redford, which examined the lasting impacts of the Watergate scandal, and “The President’s Gatekeepers” with documentarians Gédéon and Jules Naudet, which featured intimate interviews with all the living presidential chiefs of staff. 

When she took on the role of general manager at TLC in September 2013, it “felt like going home,” Daniels said. She oversees all TLC programming—shows like Breaking Amish, Cake Boss, Long Island Medium, and Sister Wives, which she describes as having a lot of heart with a little edge. “They’re the kind of shows that you watch and you really feel emotion— whether it be happy or sad or ‘Oh, my God, what is going on?’“ 

The secret sauce of TLCs programming is the combination of remarkable and relatable, Daniels said. The network gets pitched shows about loveable families all the time.“And they are [loveable], but why do I want to give over my night to them? Why do I want to watch? What makes it remarkable? That’s something we’re always looking for.” 

When the TLC network launched a refreshed visual identity this past summer, it came with a new tagline: “Everyone needs a little TLC.” The clever phrase speaks to the range of emotions its programming is meant to invoke. 

Daniels, now in her second year as general manager, said her career has been shaped by key moments with key people. “When I point to any of those moments, they are always because I had somebody who was a mentor to me, and who believed in me and recommended me for something, or gave me a job that—on paper—I wasn’t ready for, but they felt like I could do. To me, [it’s been] those moments of propulsion that get you to the next level.” 

In the last year, Nancy has participated in IC’s West Coast President’s Roundtable. For the last several years, she has also served as an alumni mentor. It’s a role she cherishes because she sees great value in helping recent graduates navigate their first job or even the first few years of their careers. 

“Without those people you meet along the way, who head you in the right direction or give you a shot, it’s very hard to move ahead. I think everybody has a few of those [people] in their career—anybody who’s had success in their career.”