Comcast’s Versant has tapped Christian McLaughlin as its new senior vice president of live entertainment, TheWrap has exclusively learned.
In his new role, McLaughlin will oversee and collaborate closely with executive producers, showrunners, producers, writers and creative partners to build the live event business across the company’s entertainment portfolio.
He will report directly to Versant’s entertainment president Val Boreland.
McLaughlin, who has nearly three decades of experience in scripted and non-scripted television, joins Versant after co-founding Rabbit Hole Media in 2022.
Prior to that, he served as Comedy Central’s senior vice president of talent and development, where he led the New York development team and oversaw stand-up, specials and non-scripted series. He also held senior roles at Bravo as vice president of current series and VH1 vice president of development and production and produced comedy and talk-variety shows for Howard Stern, Regis & Kelly and Caroline Rhea.
McLaughlin began his career as a writer, producer and director at NBC-4 New York news, where he was the recipient of five New York Emmy awards, a Promax gold award and a Writers Guild of America award.
Versant’s latest executive hire comes as it recently tapped NBCUniversal’s Jessica Kurdali to serve as vice president of talent strategy.
Other recent hires include Frank Tanki as chief marketing officer for entertainment and sports, Susie Kricena as SVP of content acquisitions, Michael Sluchan as SVP of scripted content and entertainment, Jenny Depper as senior vice president of digital entertainment, Janice Ferrell as senior vice president of entertainment production and operations and Rebecca Vazquez-Rhodes as senior vice president of entertainment programming strategy.
The appointment also comes as Versant recently unveiled its programming lineup for the 2025-2026 season, which includes 16 original series, as well as live events like WWE Smackdown and the Critics Choice Awards.
Upon separation from Comcast, Versant will become publicly-traded and house MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, Golf Channel and digital assets Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and SportsEngine. It is expected to reach 70 million U.S. households and generate $7 billion in annual revenue.
The spinoff will be tax free to Comcast shareholders and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
