Latest in Jeff Shell

The news that NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke is planning to exit when his contract expires in 2020 comes at the same time the top job is also open at WarnerMedia. The two transitions atop major media companies — with a third, at Disney, looming in 2021, when CEO Bob Iger insists he will finally step away — punctuate the…

Steve Burke will depart as CEO of NBCUniversal next year, sources confirmed to Deadline, after a mostly successful decade operating a major media entity as it was absorbed by the No. 1 U.S. cable operator. Burke, whose current contract ends in August 2020, had recently been telling close associates that he planned to…

EXCLUSIVE: The end of Sen. Kamala Harris' bid for the White House today had bicoastal fallout that includes some of the most powerful people in Hollywood, including Donald Trump's former agent. Endeavor co-CEO Ari Emanuel was among the co-hosts for an A-lister fundraiser for California's junior senator that was set to…

With film and TV production booming in New York, the state has implemented a diversity job training development fund aimed at the entertainment industry, calling it the first of its kind in the U.S.  Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said he fund will initially provide $1.05 million per year. It was passed as part of a…

BREAKING: Universal Pictures toppers Jeff Shell and Donna Langley have just sent an internal memo telling staff that marketing head Josh Goldstine has been placed on administrative leave, and Seth Byers has been let go after “inappropriate conduct” in the studio marketing department. We are trying to get to the bottom…

Andrew Cuomo may not be officially running for President in 2020, but a big-bucks visit tonight to Universal boss Jeff Shell's home to schmooze with studio chiefs shows the New York governor is already taking a page out of the Democrats' well-thumbed Hollywood playbook for a White House pursuit. The two-term governor…

UPDATED, 4:20 PM: Russia has given its side of the story involving NBCU exec Jeff Shell not being allowed into the country. State-owned news agency TASS quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying Shell has been put on a “stop list” for steering anti-Russian propaganda. “The person in question stands at the head of…

"The film business is about 10 years behind the TV business," Universal boss Jeff Shell said today at the Milken Conference in Beverly Hills about the change coming to the big-screen bottom line. "The movie business is going to fast get into the format business internationally," he added, envisioning the…

Longtime Universal Pictures spokeswoman Kori Bernards is leaving the studio after seven years. Bernards handled a pressurized job with grace through several regimes, and she is not leaving to take another job. Rather, she intends to take an extended vacation. She waited until most of the huge offerings from the studio…

Word that NBCUniversal is in talks to bring back Andrew Lack as news chief in hopes of restoring the division’s stature — and ratings — set industry observers to talking about who’d be the big winners in this development, and who not so much. Brian Williams, for instance, will now have another pal in the place, as the…

UPDATE, 12:15 PM: I told you on Friday that Jeff Shell would be appointing Vince Klaseus to the new position of President of Universal Brand Development and today he did just that. "Vince is one of the best executives in the business at leveraging innovative strategies to create successful products, and he will be a…

"I think the film business is going to be a tremendous growth business," said Jeff Shell today. Speaking at the Milken Institute's Global Conference in Beverly Hills, the Universal Filmed Entertainment chairman rebuffed Jeffrey Katzenberg's proclamation earlier this week at the same conference that "movies are not a…