Paul Nichols, the veteran publicist who saved Baywatch from cancellation, has died at his home in Weatherford, Texas at the age of 76 his family have confirmed. Although he died on March 14 his family have only just made the news public. In a tragic twist his wife of 31 years, Linda, died 12 days before he did. No cause of death has been released.

In 1991, while working for The Lippen Group, he helped All American Television bring Baywatch into first-run syndication which turned around the show's fortunes. The David Hasselhoff led series had been canceled by NBC after just one season but went on to air for 10 more years until 2001 thanks to this move which effectivly kicked off the worlwide craze for the show. Fellow publicist Les Eisner told The Hollywood Reporter he “was largely responsible for branding [Baywatch] as the world’s most-watched TV series. Whether that was true or not, who knows? But it stuck.”

While it may not have been true in 1991 when Paul helped save the show, by 1996 the show was reaching an estimate 1.1 billion viewers weekly.

It still holds the Guinness World Record for most-watched TV series in the world.

It was popular in 142 countries and translated into 44 languages, generating the spin off Baywatch Nights and a 2017 film.

It also made huge stars of its cast. David Hasselhoff, already well known from Knight Rider, became a superstar thanks to the show while it brought the likes of Pamela Anderson and Donna D'Errico to public attention.

Born on March 22, 1948, in Delaware, Paul graduated from Penn State University in 1970 with a degree in broadcast journalism.

He started his career as DJs before landing a job at popular talk show The Mike Douglas Show, which was based in Philadelphia. He moved to California in 1980 to work for John Davidson who was Douglas’ talk-show successor. During his career he also worked for Group W, All American Television and Sony Pictures Television.

Paul's wife Linda, who died on March 2 aged 77, was a senior executive at the TV marketing association Promax. After the couple retired, they moved to Texas to be closer to her family.

He is survived by his brother, Robert, sister-in-law Denise, nephews Steve and James, and niece Caitlin.