Bela Bajaria is out at Netflix.
The news comes only 24 hours after the streamer underwent a massive cull, laying off around 1,000 employees.
Bajaria joined the company in 2016, initially running its unscripted TV slate, and was named Chief Content Officer in January 2023.
There have been rumors about her being axed by the company for the past couple of weeks, all denied by Netflix. Former Disney exec Peter Rice has replaced her.
Watch on Deadline
It comes amid slowing growth for the streamer. Netflix’s stock price has dropped more than 40% over the past year (off 25% year to date) as Wall Street has increasingly scrutinized its viewer engagement, which increased only 2% over the first half of the year to 97 billion hours viewed.
Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said recently at the Bloomberg Screentime event, “At the time we said that, I think we were pretty unsophisticated about how we talked about engagement. Meaning, in that world, all the revenue is equal, a profit is equal, all engagement is equal, and all engagement is not equal. We are growing engagement, on 200 billion hours of watching, we grew 2% in our last announcement.”
RELATED: List Of Hollywood & Media Layoffs From Paramount To Warner Bros Discovery To CNN & More
Netflix also has been struggling with ratings for its returning series, many of which have posted season-to-season viewership declines, including Beef and The Four Seasons. On its last earnings video, Sarandos claimed that it actually has improved this problem this year and said it was “very common” in the industry. Such issues, however, and the fact that Netflix has not launched a big zeitgeisty title in over a year, can’t have helped Bajaria’s cause.
“I want to thank Bela for a decade of dedication, innovation, creativity and leadership,” said co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who broke the news to Netflix staff in an internal memo (read it below).. “She led enormous changes at Netflix. She helped broaden our content offering to include the large-scale expansion of unscripted programming and the launches of live events and sports, in addition to crafting and running a world class, global slate of films and series. I’m incredibly grateful for everything she’s done to help Netflix entertain the world.”
He listed hit series Bajaria had commissioned during the various stages of her Netflix tenure, from launching the streamer’s unscripted business with shows like the Queer Eye reboot and partnering with traditional studios on shows such as You early on to overseeing international (Lupin, Squid Game) and adding UCAN (The Diplomat, The Night Agent) and sports/live programming (WWE, Tyson vs Paul, the NFL).
RELATED: Netflix Layoffs Affect Unscripted Casting & Development Execs Impacted
Here is Sarandos’ internal email in full:
Hi everyone,
I have an important update to share about our Content leadership.
After a phenomenal decade at Netflix, Bela is leaving the company. It’s hard to overstate the impact Bela has had during her time here. From expanding our content offering to include the large-scale expansion of unscripted programming and the launches of live events and sports to helping shape the broadening of our content offering around the world. So much of what you see on Netflix today can be traced back to a Bela initiative: Insatiable, Queer Eye, Lupin, You, The Diplomat, WWE, YuYu Hakusho, The Night Agent, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, Squid Game, Tyson vs Paul, Cien años de soledad, the NFL. She also helped reshape our strategy to focus on fewer, bigger, better movies, championing films like KPop Demon Hunters, The Adventures of Cliff Booth, and Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, as well as bringing award winning films like La Bola Negra and Possible Love to Netflix.
A tremendous and diverse range of content (and that’s just a snapshot), bringing joy to our members across so many genres.
Bela has built and shaped a truly global Content organization, hiring brilliant people and empowering them to make good decisions. I am incredibly grateful to her for everything she’s done.
I know this is a big change in a year that has already had its share. But I also see an opportunity to take our slate to the next level, especially in UCAN where we have an outsize impact in creating big, buzzy hits that our members love and drive conversation around the world.
To help us seize on this moment, I’m excited to share that we’ve hired a new leader. Peter Rice is joining Netflix as our new Chief Content Officer beginning next week. Peter is one of the most effective at-scale operators in the entertainment industry. His business acumen is sharp, his talent relationships are exceptionally strong, and his experience across both TV and film is deep and broad. On the film side, running Fox Searchlight, he helped bring beloved fan favorite films like Slumdog Millionaire, Little Miss Sunshine, Sideways and Juno to screens. And more recently, as Chairman of Walt Disney Television, he led one of the most successful television divisions in the world, where he was responsible for a massive breadth and scale of shows ranging from The Simpsons, American Idol ,and Modern Family, to The Bear, and Abbott Elementary, along with ABC News programming and major sporting events such as the Super Bowl, NBA Finals and FIFA World Cup Finals. He’s one of the few people in our industry who has ever operated at the quality and scale that we do at Netflix every day. In the last few years, he has turned his attention to creating and has produced films with Alex Garland, Danny Boyle, Chris Rock, Jason Reitman and Aaron Sorkin at Sony and A24.
I’ve gotten to know Peter personally over the years, and I’ve always been impressed by his straightforward approach, the depth of his relationships and his exceptional creative and business instincts. Talent should have the best experiences of their life here, and Peter and I both believe that Netflix can and should be the home of the best storytellers in the world.
It’s been an eventful series of days here, and I realize we’ve asked you to absorb a lot of news and a lot of information. But we all know change is what we do at Netflix. Greg and I will host a companywide town hall on Wednesday, October 21. I want everyone to hear how we’re thinking about the strategy and our execution amid this week’s changes, and to have a chance to ask questions. It will be informal and mostly Q&A, so please bring your questions about this week’s changes and anything else on your mind.
Please join me in thanking Bela, and welcoming Peter to the team.Ted
RELATED: Doug Belgrad Leaving As Netflix VP Of Film Amid Layoffs
RELATED: Netflix Film Executive Sheroum Kim Leaving As Part Of Layoffs
