NBCU’s Shari Levine Exits as Head of Unscripted Current Production to Transition to Consulting Role

Katie Campione
·1 min read

Shari Levine is stepping down from her longtime position as NBCUniversal’s president of unscripted current production and will be instead moving into a non-exclusive consulting role, TheWrap has confirmed.

In her new role, Levine will continue to work on some of the programming she previously oversaw, including “Below Deck.” She will also pitch new ideas across the company’s networks.

In her stead, Noah Samton will step into an extended role as the head of East Coast for unscripted lifestyle current production. Kathleen French and Ryan Flynn will split oversight of the West Coast current production team. All three will report to NBCU’s television and streaming head of unscripted, Rod Aissa.

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Aissa announced Levine’s departure in a staff memo this week, which was obtained by TheWrap. You can read below.

As many of you know, Shari Levine is transitioning out of her long-held leadership position at NBCU and moving into a consulting role, working on select documentary and follow-doc shows. 

Shari has played an integral part in making high quality original programming and building and evolving the Bravo brand over her 23 years with the network, both as an executive and an Emmy-nominated producer. Her creative vision was a driving force behind the success of “Housewives,” “Below Deck” and “Million Dollar Listing” franchises as well as the launch of Project Runway and hundreds of hours or original content for Bravo, and more recently across the entertainment brands and Peacock.

Shari’s invaluable contributions have cultivated generations of loyal Bravo-holics and we are thrilled to still have her in our world for this next exciting phase of her career.

As part of this transition, Noah Samton will now report directly to me taking on an expanded purview with the team as the new head of East Coast for Unscripted Lifestyle Current Production across all platforms. Also reporting to me are Kathleen French and Ryan Flynn who will divide up overseeing the West Coast Current Production team in our Lifestyle vertical, while Stephanie Steele continues to oversee the team producing our crime shows and Rachel Smith remains as head of Development for Docs and Lifestyle programming. 

Thank you all for your continued, incredible hard work – I am fortunate to lead such an amazing team that is truly the best in the business.

Variety was first to report Levine’s exit.