Comcast president Mike Cavanagh will take over duties as chief of the media and entertainment conglomerate<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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NBC Universal chief Jeff Shell (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n
Jeff Shell has been removed as CEO of NBCUniversal effective immediately due to an \u201cinappropriate relationship\u201d with a female employee, according to a statement from parent company Comcast. Shell\u2019s team will now report directly to Comcast president Mike Cavanagh, who will retain his current title while assuming Shell\u2019s duties.<\/p>\n
Comcast says that NBCUniversal and Shell mutually agreed to part ways \u201cfollowing the Company\u2019s investigation led by outside counsel into a complaint of inappropriate conduct.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cToday is my last day as CEO of NBCUniversal,\u201d Shell wrote in a memo to staff. \u201cI had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret. I\u2019m truly sorry I let my Comcast and NBCUniversal colleagues down, they are the most talented people in the business and the opportunity to work with them the last 19 years has been a privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t \u201cWe are disappointed to share this news with you. We built this company on a culture of integrity. Nothing is more important than how we treat each other,\u201d said Cavanagh and Comcast Chairman\/CEO Brian Roberts in a separate memo. \u201cYou should count on your leaders to create a safe and respectful workplace. When our principles and policies are violated, we will always move quickly to take appropriate action, as we have done here.\u201d<\/p>\n The identity of the female employee has not been disclosed, though an individual with knowledge of the investigation told TheWrap that the employee was not involved with the entertainment side of the company and was the one who filed the complaint. The insider said that it \u201cwasn\u2019t a close call\u201d on NBCU\u2019s decision after Shell admitted to the relationship with the employee. <\/p>\n Shell is the second executive in the past three years to depart NBCUniversal over inappropriate conduct, as former vice chairman Ron Meyer left the company in August 2020 over an extramarital affair with actress Charlotte Kirk. <\/p>\n Shell took power as NBCUniversal CEO at the start of 2020 after working for the previous five years as the chairman of Universal Film and Entertainment Group. Under his leadership there, Universal Pictures succesfully revived the \u201cJurassic Park\u201d franchise into the lucrative \u201cJurassic World\u201d spinoff trilogy and developed partnerships with production companies like Jason Blum\u2019s horror studio Blumhouse and Jordan Peele\u2019s Monkeypaw Productions. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Shortly after taking charge of NBCUniversal, the COVID-19 pandemic began and led Shell and his team at Universal to make the industry changing decision to release the animated film \u201cTrolls World Tour\u201d<\/a> on video on-demand instead of waiting for theaters to reopen. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal<\/a>, Shell said that the profits earned from customers stuck in COVID lockdown \u201cexceeded our expectations and demonstrated the viability of PVOD.\u201d <\/p>\n As the severity and length of the pandemic became clearer, Universal\u2019s pivot on \u201cTrolls World Tour\u201d would end up sparking industry-wide experiments by all studios on how to release their films with the theatrical model thrown into uncertainty. While Hollywood as a whole has recently recommitted to releasing films in movie theaters first, the experiments conducted by the pandemic have led to a significant decrease in the theatrical exclusive window<\/a> from the 90-day length typically used prior to the pandemic. <\/p>\n Prior to Universal, Shell also served as president of Comcast Programming Group and Fox Cable Networks Group.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shell\u2019s family lives in Ojai, a rural town north of Los Angeles, but he worked mainly from New York after becoming NBCUniversal CEO.<\/p>\n![\"Entertainment](\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/f-murray-abraham-mythic-quest-150x150.jpg\")
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