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Bonnie Hammer Takes Over All NBCU Cable Entertainment Cable Nets, Lauren Zalaznick Shifts To New Role, Joe Uva Gets Telemundo

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday February 4, 2013 @ 12:21pm PSTTags: Bonnie Hammer, NBCUniversal, Steve Burke
Nellie Andreeva

Bonnie Hammer is officially NBCUniversal‘s cable queen. Hammer, who added E! and G4 to her portfolio of USA, Syfy and Universal Cable Prods after the Comcast merger, is now taking over the combined company’s entire entertainment cable universe including Bravo, Oxygen and Style, which had been under the purview of fellow top-ranked NBCU cable executive Lauren Zalaznick. Zalaznick, whose post-merger portfolio was a hodgepodge mix of cable networks (Bravo, Style), Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo and digital properties — red-hot Fandago and iVillage (which recently shifted to NBC News Digital) — will now take on a new role as EVP NBCUniversal, focusing on innovation, digital, monetization and emerging technology across the company. Telemundo oversight is going to former Univision Communications CEO Joe Uva, who is joining NBCUniversal as Chairman, Hispanic Enterprises and Content. NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke just outlined the restructuring in an internal email (below).

The awkward separation of NBCU’s entertainment cable assets had historic reasons. Hammer and Zalaznick originally made their mark running a cable network (Sci Fi Channel and Trio, respectively) and as they rose through the ranks, the two kept expanding their portfolios until all NBCUniversal entertainment cable nets were under the supervision of one of them. Heading into the Comcast-NBCU merger, one of Burke’s trickiest tasks was trying to keep both Hammer and Zalaznick in the company. That meant giving each some of Comcast’s cable nets — E! and G4 went to Hammer, Style to Zalaznick. But the separation of NBCU’s entertainment cable assets has made less and less sense, especially as networks on both sides were starting to move in a similar direction. READ MORE »

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NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Taps Steve Dolcemaschio To Run Reality Studio

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday November 30, 2011 @ 10:29am PSTTags: Bonnie Hammer

Steve Dolcemaschio, who has been the COO of E! Entertainment for the past six years, has been picked to run NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment’s reality production arm Comcast Entertainment Studio. The unit, which is being renamed early next year, develops and … Read More »

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Kevin Plunkett Gets E!’s Scripted Exec Post

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday October 24, 2011 @ 9:24am PDTTags: ABC Studios, Bonnie Hammer, Comcast, E! Entertainment, NBCUniversal
Nellie Andreeva

After a long search, E! Entertainment Television has tapped former ABC Studios head of comedy Kevin Plunkett as its first-ever dedicated scripted executive. Plunkett has been named SVP Scripted Programming, overseeing all aspects of E!’s scripted development and reporting to … Read More »

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Cory Shields To Head PR For NBCU Cable Entertainment, John Kelley Gets New Role

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday July 21, 2011 @ 10:42am PDTTags: Bonnie Hammer, NBCU Cable Entertainment & Cable Studio
Nellie Andreeva

NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment and Cable Studios, the NBCUniversal division run by chairman Bonnie Hammer, is making a top PR change as 2 veteran NBC Universal PR executives get new roles. … Read More »

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Suzanne Kolb Named President of E! Entertainment

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday July 7, 2011 @ 10:00am PDTTags: Bonnie Hammer, E! Entertainment, Promotion, Suzanne Kolb, Ted Harbert

Back in May, we reported about rumblings that E! Entertainment marketing president Suzanne Kolb had emerged as the top internal candidate to replace Ted Harbert as the network’s president, after Harbert moved on to NBC to oversee stations, affiliates, and sales alongside Bob Greenblatt. NBC Cable chairman Bonnie Hammer took her time, but today she made it official about Kolb. Here’s the release:

Los Angeles, July 7, 2011 – Suzanne Kolb has been named President of E! Entertainment, reporting to Bonnie Hammer, Chairman, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment and Cable Studios. Kolb previously served as President, Marketing, News and Online for E! and The Style Network and has played a key leadership role in driving the networks’ record-breaking growth over the past six years. As E! President, Kolb’s senior management team will include longtime E! executives Steve Dolcemaschio, Chief Operating Officer, Lisa Berger, President, Entertainment Programming, and Cyndi McClellan, Executive Vice President, Research & Program Strategy.

“As a member of E!’s leadership team, Suzanne has played a pivotal role in getting the network to the great place it is today,” said Hammer. “Her strong oversight of three areas key to E!’s success — news, online and marketing — makes her the perfect person to lead the brand through the important next phase of its evolution.”

“I am incredibly grateful to Bonnie for the opportunity to lead E! during this wonderfully exciting and unique time in the brand’s history and equally thrilled to do that in partnership with a management team I know and love,” said Kolb. “E! has enjoyed great success in the past but we’re just getting started.”

In her previous role as President, Marketing, News and Online, E! Entertainment and The Style Network, Kolb led all marketing, communications and brand alliances for both networks, and oversaw the networks’ popular non-linear destinations E! Online and mystyle.com. Most recently Kolb successfully unified and expanded E!’s news entities, including E! News, E! Online and E! News Now, and has helped to establish E! News as the top global entertainment news brand.

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E! Narrows Field For Ted Harbert’s Successor

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday May 25, 2011 @ 3:25pm PDTTags: Bonnie Hammer, E! Entertainment, Suzanne Kolb, Ted Harbert
Nellie Andreeva

Like she had said, NBC Cable chairman Bonnie Hammer is taking her time with finding a new president of E! to succeed Ted Harbert. Word is she is a few weeks away from making a final decision and is still considering a couple of outside candidates. Internally, marketing president Suzanne … Read More »

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Jeff Wachtel And Chris McCumber Named USA Network Co-Presidents

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday March 16, 2011 @ 11:17pm PDTTags: Bonnie Hammer, Jeff Wachtel, NBCUniversal, USA Network
Nellie Andreeva

With Bonnie Hammer taking on a much larger portfolio following the NBC-Comcast merger, she is ceding control over day-to-day operations of NBCUniversal’s flagship cable network USA.

Hammer will continue to oversee … Read More »

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Will Zalaznick’s MTV Maneuvering Backfire?

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Wednesday September 29, 2010 @ 2:22pm PDTTags: Bonnie Hammer, Bravo, Comcast NBC Universal, Comcast-NBCU Merger, Lauren Zalaznick, Oxygen, Ted Harbert

Ever since the NBC Universal-Comcast merger was announced last year, the obnoxious Lauren Zalaznick has been lobbying for a bigger role within the combined company. And, in the process, she’s made a pest of herself from what I hear. The president of … Read More »

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Leight Leaves ‘Criminal Intent’ For HBO

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday May 31, 2008 @ 11:18am PDTTags: Bonnie Hammer, Cable, HBO In Treatment, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, NBCU Cable Entertainment & Cable Studio, TV, Warren Leight

Within days of USA Network renewing Law & Order: Criminal Intent with an order for 16 episodes, the series has just lost its showrunner. I’m told Warren Leight has left to be the showrunner of HBO’s In Treatment. It’s a … Read More »

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