• by Wayne Friedman , September 9, 2020

Long-time NBCUniversal veteran Bonnie Hammer will become vice chairman and key adviser to Jeff Shell, chief executive officer of NBCUniversal.

Hammer replaces the position Ron Meyer held. Meyer recently resigned after disclosing that he agreed to pay a woman who allegedly tried to extort him years after they had a relationship.

At the same time, NBCU promoted Pearlena Igbokwe to chairman of NBCUniversal's Content Studios -- a role Hammer had held.

Igbokwe, who had been president of Universal TV, will now oversee Universal Television, Universal Content Productions and NBCUniversal International Studios, and report to Shell. She came to NBCUniversal in 2012 from Showtime.

This comes as NBCU has hired Susan Rovner to head up entertainment programming of NBCUniversal -- overseeing programming creation at NBC, premium streaming platform Peacock, and basic cable networks USA, Syfy, Bravo Oxygen and E!.

Rovner, who came from WarnerMedia, will work alongside Francis Berwick, who was promoted to overseeing all “entertainment business” decisions including scheduling, research, marketing and acquisitions for NBC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, Oxygen and E!, among other networks. 

Rovner will report to Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.

This restructuring came at the same time as the announcement that Paul Telegdy would be departing his post as chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment. NBCUniversal has been conducting a misconduct investigation with regard to Telegdy.