A senior exec at Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., Swanson is the head of station operations for Fox, which means he's the man who makes sure The Simpsons and American Idol run on time.

A former Marine, Swanson has done a complete tour of duty in the television business. After getting his start in TV news in Iowa, he moved to Chicago to be a producer for the city's NBC affiliate. Following a three-year stint at the syndicated news service Television News Inc., he landed a gig at Los Angeles' KABC in 1976. Within two years he was lured to WLS in Chicago, where he made programming changes that boosted the channel to the number-one slot. Then it was off to head ABC Sports. Swanson stayed at the network for a decade, during which he revamped Monday Night Football and made it one of the highest-rated primetime TV shows. But by 1996 he was on the move again, taking over NBC's flagship New York affiliate before becoming executive vice president of Viacom's station group, where he had oversight over the CBS and UPN affiliates. In 2005 his buddy Roger Ailes brought him to Fox, where he's been tasked with overhauling the network's broadcast stations.

Although the under-the-radar exec has little name recognition, Swanson's had a major impact on the TV landscape. The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting as network extravaganza? Swanson's idea. He's also the person who persuaded the International Olympics Committee to hold an Olympics every two years instead of every four. He's even responsible for launching Oprah Winfrey's talk show career, having brought her to Chicago in 1983 to host AM Chicago. Apparently, when Swanson selected Oprah for the job, she was a little hesitant to take it. After reminding him that she was black and overweight, Swanson replied, "I don't want you to change your appearance. If I wanted a glamorous person, I'd have hired someone else." [Image via Getty]