Bela Bajaria Elevated to President of Universal TV Amid NBC Comedy Shakeup

LOS ANGELES: As part of a reshuffle within NBC's comedy programming department, Bela Bajaria has been promoted to president of Universal Television, while Tracey Pakosta moves to the network to take on the role of executive VP of comedy programming.

Pakosta had been serving as head of comedy development at Universal Television. Pakosta will replace Vernon Sanders, who will return to running current programming, both in drama and comedy. Pearlena Igbokwe, the executive VP of drama programming, will concentrate going forward on drama development.

NBC Entertainment's chairman, Bob Greenblatt, said: “Bela has done an incredible job of starting a studio from scratch three years ago and launching a series of hits on programming services ranging from NBC and FOX to A&E and Netflix. This business is very important to the overall performance at NBC Entertainment.”

Jennifer Salke, the president of NBC Entertainment, added: "We’re very happy that Bela is going to continue to run the studio at a time when the demand for American television shows keeps growing in this country and around the world. Furthermore, Tracey Pakosta is a superb comedy executive with many years of experience and we’re thrilled to have her come to NBC. This will position NBC very strongly in the comedy business moving forward, which is a major goal for us."