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EXCLUSIVE: The race to switch Ralph Lee on the helm of BBC Studios Productions is underway, with the studio signaling its ambition by approaching among the UK’s high unscripted executives.
Lee will step down because the CEO of BBC Studios Productions subsequent month after a six-year stint to “pursue a brand new problem” however Deadline is advised that headhunter Russell Reynolds Associates is already scoping out successors.
The profitable candidate will run a manufacturing unit that contributed closely to BBC Studios’ £1.6B ($2B) content material income final yr, overseeing hits together with Good Omens, Strictly Come Dancing, and David Attenborough’s pure historical past tentpoles.
Deadline understands that Russell Reynolds has held tentative early conversations with potential candidates together with STV Studios managing director David Mortimer, ITV Studios unscripted director Angela Jain and Karl Warner, Channel 4’s outgoing head of youth and digital.
Fatima Salaria, who beforehand ran The Apprentice producer Bare, and Tim Hincks, the boss of BBC Studios-backed Clarkson’s Farm outfit Expectation, have additionally been approached. One other title within the body is Tom McDonald, the previous Blue Planet II commissioner who now heads up Nat Geo’s factual and unscripted providing.
Different executives linked to the function embody Sky UK content material boss Zai Bennett, former Endemol CEO Sophie Turner Laing, and skilled ex-BBC content material boss Lorraine Heggessey. Internally, executives together with factual boss Kate Ward, factual leisure MD Hannah Wyatt, and recently-promoted World Leisure chief Matt Forde are all extremely regarded.
Sources mentioned Russell Reynolds has emphasised inventive experience in conversations with potential candidates, with individuals conversant in the method saying that the unit is on the lookout for a “expertise magnet.” BBC Studios declined to remark.
Drama Problem
Almost all these linked to the function have unscripted credentials, which might be useful for a possible reinvention of Prime Gear, however may increase eyebrows amongst trade observers who consider that BBC Studios’ scripted slate might be elevated.
Longrunning collection together with Holby Metropolis and Docs have been canceled, whereas BBC Studios misplaced the manufacturing contract for Physician Who in a extremely uncommon cope with Dangerous Wolf. BBC Studios nonetheless handles Physician Who’s worldwide gross sales and merchandise.
Deadline revealed BBC Studios Drama Productions boss Priscilla Parish was exiting after 4 years final yr. Her substitute, Kate Oates, is extra skilled within the persevering with drama area reasonably than premium fare.
Sources have speculated in latest months that BBC Studios Drama Productions is being quietly shrunk as BBC Studios locations extra deal with its owned drama indies, together with Killing Eve maker Sid Mild, Steve Coogan’s Child Cow, and Glad Valley producer Lookout Level.
Runners and riders
Mortimer has overseen a constructive turnaround since taking on Scottish producer STV Studios in 2018, posting a revenue and touchdown hits together with Apple TV+’s Prison File starring Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi, and BBC gameshow Bridge of Lies. He’s conversant in the interior workings of the BBC, having had a prolonged stint on the company throughout which he was each a commissioner and producer, and he additionally has expertise stateside with NBCUniversal. Holding him again stands out as the lure of the STV job. His boss Simon Pitts introduced his exit a fortnight in the past and Pitts will be part of audio large World initially of subsequent yr, with Mortimer the apparent substitute if STV seems to be internally.
ITV Studios’ Jain has quietly labored her means into probably the most highly effective positions within the UK unscripted sport. She turned the manufacturing powerhouse’s first-ever Director of Unscripted within the UK in late 2021 and, though holding herself principally out of the limelight, is extremely rated. Massive-name credit embody I’m a Superstar and Love Island, whereas new IP akin to Afraid of the Darkish and I Kissed a Boy has emerged underneath her watch. She is a former controller of E4 and has additionally commissioned for Channel 4 and Channel 5.
Warner is quickly to exit Channel 4 amid the community’s 250-staff layoff program. Warner’s large success at Channel 4 has been Married at First Sight, for which he struck a multi-year deal in 2022 that revamped the hit present and has since seen it obtain document E4 rankings.
Hincks based Expectation a number of years again with Peter Fincham and has since produced the likes of Clarkson’s Farm, Backstage with Katherine Ryan and In My Pores and skin. He’s a former Inventive Director of Endemol UK, overseeing hits akin to Massive Brother, Deal or No Deal, and Black Mirror.
McDonald, in the meantime, has a lot BBC Studios expertise having been factual director of the outfit earlier than transferring to Nat Geo. He oversaw the celebrated Pure Historical past Unit, which is answerable for international manufacturers together with Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II.
McDonald’s former BBC colleague Salaria can also be mentioned to be within the combine. The skilled govt has been with no job since leaving Apprentice producer Bare final yr and has labored on either side of the commissioner-producer fence. She oversaw development at Fremantle-owned Bare, throughout which it made The Rap Sport, ITV’s Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile, and the Cara Delevingne-helmed Planet Intercourse for BBC Three and Hulu.
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