Lisa Katz and Tracey Pakosta were promoted to co-presidents of scripted programming at NBC on Thursday, stepping in for Jennifer Salke after her jump over to Amazon.
Katz and Pakosta previously served as executive vice presidents of drama and comedy, respectively, will now oversee all of NBC’s scripted series and will report directly to NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt.
“Lisa and Tracey have impeccable taste, strong leadership and a deep understanding of the NBC brand,” Greenblatt said in a statement. “It was Lisa who was one of the first to discover and cultivate what is now the phenomena of ‘This Is Us,’ and she continues to bring that astute eye to all the she does for NBC; and Tracey has shepherded in a new era of smart comedies, reigniting audiences to once again tune in on Thursday nights. Their relationships with top showrunners and talent are second to none, and I have no doubt their combined experience and expertise will build on the incredible momentum the network has right now.”
In their previous roles, Katz and Pakosta reported to Salke, who announced last week that she’d leave the network to replace the recently ousted Roy Price as the head of Amazon Studios. In a statement at the time of the announcement, Greenblatt said Salke deserved “enormous credit” for elevating NBC to the top of all the broadcast networks in the ratings.
Katz first joined NBC in July 2016, overseeing the buying and development of all one-hour projects as well as shepherding the pilots and first seasons of all new dramas. She had previously served at 20th Century Fox Television and Brillstein-Grey.
Pakosta joined NBCUniversal in 2011, where she originally served at Universal Television before being recruited to run comedy at the network in 2015. She is credited with developing shows such as “The Good Place” and “Superstore” at NBC, and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “The Mindy Project” and “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” at Universal Television.