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East Side native racks up daytime TV show Emmys
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
The first Emmy that John Filimon won is on display at his mother’s house in Hubbard.
He always knew that if he ever won the award, its home would be there.
“She had more faith in me than I did back then,” said Filimon with a smile. “When I first started working at WFMJ [in 1979], she said, ‘Someday you’ll win an Emmy.’ So she put it in my head.”
Filimon, a Youngstown native, won that first Emmy in 2008 as part of the team that produces “Rachael Ray.” He has since won a total of four Daytime Emmys for his work as a field producer: two with Ray’s talk show, and two with “Dr. Oz,” where he has worked since 2010.
The New York-area resident grew up on the East Side of Youngstown and graduated from Youngstown State University and Ursuline High School. He began his television career here soon after graduating, first as a producer for 21 WFMJ-TV news and then at WYTV’s “Good Morning Youngstown.”
“It was great training for what I do now,” he said.
Today, as a field producer for “Dr. Oz,” Filimon leads a film crew to locations throughout the country to shoot stories. He then edits the video and writes the script for “Dr. Oz.”
While back in the Mahoning Valley last week for the holidays, Filimon met with The Vindicator to talk about his accomplishments.
Although his TV career began in Youngstown, Filimon made a series of moves to ever-larger markets beginning in 1982 — first to Augusta, Ga., then Shreveport, La., then Orlando, Fla., before hitting the big time in Miami.
In 1990, Filimon took a producer job at WCBS-TV in New York. He would also work simultaneously at “Style with Elsa Klensch” before moving full time to the CNN show.
“We went all over the world covering fashion runway shows,” he said. “Milan, Paris, London.”
Filimon also produced “Full Frontal Fashion” for New York’s Metro-Channel and WE Entertainment TV.
In the late ’90s, he published his first book, “Double Take: The Art of the Celebrity Makeover,” co-authored with celebrity makeup artist Devon Cass. The book is a “how-to” guide for transforming everyday people into celebrity look-a-likes.
Filimon’s move into daytime television began in 2004, when he started as a producer with the “The Jane Pauley Show,” a talk show that ran for only one season.
Next, after a stint on “Martha Stewart,” he went to “Rachael Ray” for four years, and then briefly to “The Nate Berkus Show” before finally landing at “Dr. Oz.”
Filimon has great respect for the show’s host. Dr. Mehmet Oz, he pointed out, is still a practicing cardiothoracic surgeon who continues to see patients.
The show has become the primary platform for the nation’s medical and health conversation, and Filimon said it does save lives. “[Dr. Oz] is sincere,” said Filimon. “He follows up with the people on the show and makes sure they get treatment after the cameras are gone.”
Filimon won Emmy Awards as part of the show’s production team for Outstanding Talk Show/Informative in 2011-12 and 2012-13, both for episodes on clinics for the needy presented by Dr. Oz.
His Emmys for “Rachael Ray” for Outstanding Talk Show/Entertainment came in 2007-08 and 2008-09.
Of all the stories he has produced, Filimon readily recalls two when asked which ones stand out. Both aired on “Rachael Ray,” and both resulted in Emmys.
The first was shot at a high school in Enterprise, Ala., that was destroyed by a 2007 tornado that killed eight. “The students’ main memory was going to be that tragedy,” said Filimon. “Rachael said ‘let’s throw them a prom.’”
The show took care of tuxedos, dresses and food, and even brought in pop singer Mandy Moore to entertain.
“We turned around their memory,” said Filimon.
Another episode he holds special also involved a tragedy.
About 40 brides lost thousands of dollars in 2008 when Hurricane Ike tore through Texas. Ray staged a mass wedding for them at Minute Maid Park, a stadium in Houston.