Yet another executive shake-up is happening at NBCUniversal as the entertainment company introduces a new television content chief.
Variety reports that Pearlena Igbokwe has been elevated to the position, after previously acting as chief of Universal Television. In her new position, Igbokwe will be in charge of NBCUniversal International Studios, Universal Cable Productions, and Universal television, which are all under the umbrella of the Universal Studio Group.
Some of the successes that Igbokwe achieved under her former position include The Blacklist as well as the procedural drama franchise, Chicago. Igbokwe also shepherded the shows New Amsterdam, Superstore, and The Good Place.
Deadline also reports that Igbokwe is not the only one to get a promotion at the company. Bonnie Hammer, the woman who previously held the job Igbokwe now has, will now be vice chairman of NBCUniversal.
Hammer is a 40-year veteran of the business and was behind the creation of NBCUniversal’s streaming platform, Peacock. She was able to lead NBCUniversal’s cable channels -- Universal Kids, E! Entertainment, Oxygen, Bravo, SYFY, and the USA Network -- to record numbers of viewership and profit.
These new promotion announcements come after NBCUniversal introduced a new entertainment programming division head in Susan Rovner. As part of her new role, she will be in charge of the scripted, alternative, unscripted, and late-night programming for NBC and its cable networks.
Before heading to NBCUniversal, Rovner worked alongside Brett Paul as co-president of WBTV. Rovner was also the heir apparent to Peter Roth, who is currently the CEO and chairman of Warner Bros. Television Studios.
The executive shake-ups are also happening in other entertainment companies as the industry is adapting to the new normal brought about by the global coronavirus pandemic. Just recently, Netflix announced the promotion of Bela Bajaria as the Head of Global TV.
Bajaria’s role before this new position was vice-president of Local Language Originals. Under her leadership, Netflix launched the immensely successful Queer Eye reboot, which won a total of seven awards at the past two Emmy Awards.
A couple of months before Bajaria’s promotion, Bozoma Saint John was announced as the new chief marketing officer of Netflix. Before joining the streaming giant, Saint John worked as Endeavor’s chief marketing officer, the chief brand officer at Uber, Apple Music’s head of consumer marketing, and Pepsi North America’s head of music and entertainment marketing.
Saint John described her new role as thrilling and said that her goal was to increase the audience’s engagement with Netflix.