Versant, the Comcast-owned company formerly known as SpinCo, has a new programming team.
The company has named six executives, all formerly of NBCUniversal, across its entertainment portfolio, including Cori Abraham, who Deadline revealed was leading content efforts under President of Entertainment Val Boreland.
The most significant move from a programming perspective is the addition to Michael Sluchan, as SVP, Scripted Content, Entertainment.
Sluchan, who was most recently EVP, Scripted Series, Movies, Daytime, Kids and Co-Productions across NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, will oversee all scripted for the company. Its biggest project in this realm is The Rainmaker for USA Network.
Sluchan has been with NBCUniversal since 1999 and has worked on series including Bel-Air, Saved by the Bell and We are Lady Parts as well as Monk, Mr. Robot, The Sinner, Suits and Royal Pains.
Abraham will serve as interim department lead and SVP, Unscripted Content for Entertainment, overseeing both development and current unscripted programming across E!, SYFY, USA Network and Oxygen True Crime.
Susie Kricena will oversee content licensing across Versant as SVP, Content Acquisitions. The job is likely to be an important one for the company, which may acquire more content that it commissions as it steps out on its own.
Kricena has been with NBCUniversal for nearly five years, having joined from Paramount, where she spent many years working at Comedy Central.
Elsewhere, Jenny Depper will be SVP, Digital for Entertainment, where she lead the digital and social strategies for E!, USA Network, Oxygen True Crime and Syfy’s digital properties. She joined NBCU in 2017. Janice Ferrell will be SVP, Production and Operations for Entertainment, serving as lead for all production and content operations, as well as standards & practices across its networks and digital properties. She was previously in a similar role at NBCUniversal, managing production across formats, competition shows, gameshows and documentaries. Rebecca Vazquez-Rhodes will be SVP, Programming Strategy for Entertainment. In this role, she will oversee the curation of its content, having previously been SVP, Program Scheduling and Strategy across USA Network and Syfy.
Versant’s entertainment portfolio includes USA Network, Oxygen True Crime, E!, and Syfy. It is run by CEO Mark Lazarus.
“These leaders will work in close partnership with me and our Entertainment teams to strengthen our dynamic lineup of bold original series, fan favorites, and engaging content across platforms,” Boreland said in a note to staff.
