TOLDJA! Jen Salke Signs For Big NBC Job

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva back on June 10th reported that this was happening — and it’s taken this long. As one of Bob Greenblatt’s closest friends, 20th Century Fox Television EVP Jennifer Nicholson Salke had been expected to join him at NBC since before he even officially started at the network. Now she’s signed on the dotted line to become NBC Entertainment President under Greenblatt, the entertainment chairman. We hear there should be an announcement this week — but Nellie previously reported that, behind the scenes, Salke already has been involved in some NBC decisions in a consulting capacity. For instance, Salke and Greenblatt together recently approached Peter Traugott and made Universal Media Studios’ first major pod deal with him. Also, this past season, Salke fielded two 20th TV projects that Greenblatt picked up to series for next season: dramas The Playboy Club and Awake.

Even though Salke still had another year or so on her contract at 20th TV, chairmen Gary Newman and Dana Walden, who is a close friend, did not stand in her way. A respected development executive, Salke has been at 20th TV for almost a decade. She served as head of drama, first as SVP and then as EVP, developing such series as Bones and Prison Break before being promoted in 2008 to oversee both drama and comedy development. Before joining 20th TV, she was SVP development at Columbia TriStar TV.

This is yet another Greenblatt move to assemble his executive team, including adding Sony TV’s Tal Rabinowitz as new head of comedy. Greenblatt’s own no-poaching agreement with Showtime expires this summer.