EXCLUSIVE: Cori Abraham, who led crime and documentary across NBCUniversal, is joining SpinCo.
Abraham will oversee original unscripted content at the newly spun-off business, which will encompass cable networks including E!, Syfy and USA Network.
Her move comes amid a number of changes across NBCUniversal, particularly on the unscripted side. Deadline revealed yesterday that the company made a number of layoffs with SVPs including Stephanie Steele and Jenny Ramirez exiting the company.
These cuts came as part of a wider set of changes over the last few months that saw the creation of SpinCo and changes to its management structure involving Pearlena Igbokwe and Frances Berwick.
The creation of SpinCo, which may end up being called Spark Media, per Dylan Byers, led to a handful of cuts as well as a number of NBCU executives moving over, including Abraham, on an interim basis.
Earlier this year, SpinCo named Val Boreland, who was EVP and Head of Content Acquisitions, TV & Streaming for NBCUniversal, as its President of Entertainment.
Abraham, a popular figure within the unscripted business, will work with Boreland to oversee its original content in the unscripted space. Non-scripted titles across the SpinCo portfolio include E! shows such as House of Villains and Botched as well as a multitude of true-crime programming – Abraham’s specialty – largely from Oxygen Media. The cable network is behind long-running series such as Snapped as well as Dick Wolf’s Cold Justice and Deadly Waters with Captain Lee.
Abraham has been with NBCUniversal for around 20 years. She started as VP, Development in 2004 and spent six years at Bravo, joining from VH1, before becoming SVP, Development, Production and International at Oxygen Media, where she spent 13 years.
Last year, she was promoted to SVP, Unscripted Development, Crime & Documentary, NBCUniversal Entertainment, overseeing all unscripted crime and documentary development across NBC, cable networks and Peacock.
This included titles such as Peacock’s Face to Face with Scott Peterson, Who Killed Robert Wone? and TikTok Star Murders, and Oxygen True Crime’s Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them, Buried in the Backyard, and Accident, Suicide, or Murder.
The move to put Igbokwe in charge of unscripted at NBC and Berwick overseeing unscripted for Bravo and Peacock changed things again – moving away from buyers working on projects across NBCU’s entire portfolio.
