Peter Nelson
Peter Nelson
Peter Nelson is the Executive Vice President at HBO Sports. He is in charge of supervising the strategic direction, programming, and operations of the HBO Sports department, including its boxing franchise and HBO Pay-Per-View®.[13]
He is also dating Sofia Franklyn, one of the former co-hosts of the raunchy podcast Call Her Daddy. The hosts of the podcast, Franklyn and Alexandra Cooper, have fallen out and Nelson is said to be at the center of the split.
Personal life
Nelson at the premiere Of HBO's "Andre The Giant" at The Cinerama Dome on March 29, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.
Nelson was born in Newton, Massachusetts, in either 1981 or 1982.
His favorite shows are The Wire, Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, and Six Feet Under.
He opts to stay off social media, and says that avoiding it is his "guilty pleasure."
He even described his ideal day off as "without a phone."[15]
Education
Nelson attended Oberlin College from 1999-2000, and then transferred to Harvard University.
He received his bachelor's degree in Ancient/Classical Greek Language and Literature from Harvard University.
Career
Nelson joined HBO Sports in August 2011 as the Director of Programming.
He was promoted to Vice President of Programming in June 2014 and then again to Executive Vice President in December 2015.
Nelson with his girlfriend Sofia Franklyn, co-host of popular podcast Call Her Daddy, at the 6th Annual Village Fete at Pioneer Works Center For Art and Innovation in Brooklyn, New York on April 27, 2019.
He has produced many projects, including a five-part docuseries on tennis champion Serena Williams, "Hard Knocks", a talk show called "The Shop: Uninterrupted" which lists LeBron James and Maverick Carter as executive producers, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, an André the Giant documentary, "What's My Name? Muhammad Ali", and many more.
He cut content deals with the WWE, SpringHill Entertainment, LeBron James and Maverick Carter's Uninterrupted, IMG Original Content; Endeavor Content, and filmmakers Jason Hehir and Michael and Jeff Zimbalist.
Nelson has previously volunteered with numerous organizations.
He joined the International Rescue Committee in September 2015 until September 2017 as part of the GenR Leadership Committee for disaster/humanitarian relief.[11]
He has also volunteered at the New York City Ballet from April 2016 to April 2017 and at the Metropolitan Opera from February 2016 to February 2017.[11]
Sports Business Daily included Nelson in their "Forty Under 40" list in March 2019.[15]
In August 2020, Nelson decided to leave HBO Sports, as first reported by Awful Announcing.
The sports media blog further states Nelson is leaving on his own terms and is not part of a round of layoffs which were also announced before.
According to Boxing Scene, Nelson’s departure won’t be immediate, with the HBO Sports president planning to leave his post within the next 30 – 60 days.[22]
Call Her Daddy rumors
Nelson has been dating Sofia Franklyn, co-host of the hit podcast Call Her Daddy, since at least 2019. Franklyn began referring to Nelson as “suit man” on the podcast in early 2019. The two were finally pictured together at the 6th annual Village Fete in Brooklyn, New York, on April 27, 2019.
In late April 2020, rumors began circulating that Sofia Franklyn and Alexandra Cooper, the other co-host of Call Her Daddy, had a falling out. The pair were supposed to continue filming videos, but haven't uploaded since early April 2020, violating their contract with Barstool Sports.
The podcast is known for the hosts sharing graphic details about their sexual exploits and their fans who call themselves the “Daddy Gang.”
The split was allegedly due to the girls contemplating other deals, potentially worth millions, and wanting to end their contract with Barstool Sports, who owns the trademark to their brand. An insider told the New York Post:
“They’ve completely turned on each other and started arguing over who was the real talent and who did more of the heavy lifting [for the podcast].
[...] I think their audience would be surprised to learn what has been going on behind the scenes with them.
It’s not the loyal, fun-loving friendship they put out there.”[21]
Barstool Sports founder David Portnoy uploaded a Call Her Daddy episode titled "Daddy Speaks", claiming that Nelson was one of the main reasons the situation escalated.
Portnoy said, “I was starting to hear whispers, and she (Cooper) confirmed it,and this is a big part of the story, her new boyfriend…Peter Nelson, HBO executive, probably greenlit a hit piece on me not too long ago, [came] into the mix not too long ago. He was the one who brought in all these lawyers.”
He continued, “He was openly shopping Call Her Daddy. He was acting almost as a manager, and he got a deal with Wondery. They were going to call the podcast 'The Fathers'.”
Portnoy spoke with Cooper alone, who told him that they were never going to get a deal done because Franklyn was refusing. Alexandra Cooper said to Portnoy that she wanted sign the new contract with Barstool Sports.”
He said, “Once we got ready to do a deal with [Cooper], I believe the Wondery deal clearly fell through because there was no longer "Call Her Daddy," I think [Franklyn] wanted to come back maybe. But it was too late. The fifty-fifty deal, [Cooper] didn't want to do it anymore.”
Franklyn posted a series of videos to her Instagram stories on May 19, 2020, addressing the matter but remained silent on accusations that Nelson was behind the drama and didn’t mention his name.
Cooper posted a video to YouTube on May 22, 2020, titled "The Truth about Call Her Daddy" to announce that she signed a solo deal with Barstool Sports to resume filming Call Her Daddy and to tell her side of the split.
Cooper said Franklyn allowed her boyfriend Peter Nelson, and his “posse” of agents and lawyers to interfere in their business and come between them.
She said Peter Nelson kept saying that they made “way below” the industry standard.
Cooper also alleges that Nelson then took the lead, drafting a list of demands the women sought from Barstool, which included a guarantee of $1 million each, a bigger piece of their merchandise revenue and giving them the intellectual property rights.
On Instagram, Portnoy confirmed Cooper’s news, saying: “It’s all now back to Alex Cooper and Peter Nelson go f - - k yourself, you f - - k.”