Mark Linsey, Angie Stephenson exit as BBC Studios rejigs LA operation
BBC Studios (BBCS) has revealed a major shake-up within its LA-based content team, with scripted president Mark Linsey and exec Angie Stephenson leaving and Ryan O’Dowd promoted to lead the office.
O’Dowd, who was previously the BBCS president of unscripted in LA, has been elevated to become president of BBC Studios Global Productions LA, with his purview extending to all production and development activity across both scripted and unscripted.
BBCS said the move to bring scripted and unscripted operations under a single leader mirrored the structure in its other international production hubs.
It characterised the move as “refining its approach” to scripted production in LA and said it will “remain firmly multi-genre, with a dedicated scripted focus operating within the broader LA production operation under O’Dowd’s leadership.”
“The new structure brings BBC Studios’ Los Angeles creative and production teams more closely together while providing greater leverage with the company’s wider Global Productions network, including its international creative expertise, development capabilities, production infrastructure and global partnerships,” said BBCS.
Shows produced by BBCS out of LA include Dancing with the Stars and Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro for ABC; Nation’s Dumbest, The 1% Club and Celebrity Weakest Link for Fox; and Outlast for Netflix.
The executive shuffle comes three-and-a-half years after Linsey relocated from London to LA to lead BBCS’s LA outpost. He has spent more than 20 years with the BBC in various roles including controller of BBC entertainment programming in the UK, where he worked on titles such as Strictly Come Dancing, Top Gear, The Graham Norton Show and MasterChef, as well as acting director of television. He also played a key part in the launch of BBC Studios as a commercial entity in 2016 and the ensuing merger with BBC Worldwide in 2018.
Stephenson, who was the executive VP of scripted in LA, has also been with the BBC for around two decades in a variety of posts. Her earlier roles include senior VP of scripted development and senior VP of programming, acquisitions and coproductions. She worked on titles including Mammoth and Welcome to Flatch for Fox, The Night Of for HBO and the American adaptation of Ghosts for CBS.
The moves come during a period of massive change across BBCS’s US-based operation. In New York, there have been multiple exec changes over the past year, including the exit of Beth Anderson, who served as senior VP of sales planning for BBCS’s global content studio, earlier this month.
Other high-profile departures from the New York office over the past 12 months include Rebecca Glashow, who served as CEO of BBC Global Media & Streaming, leaving last September and president of global content sales Janet Brown leaving in January after declining to relocate to London.
In its Wednesday announcement, BBCS said it had an active development slate with LA-based buyers such as Disney/Hulu, Fox and FX. It also insisted that LA remains a “key creative and production hub for BBC Studios and an important part of the company’s ambitions in the US.”
“Bringing our Los Angeles production activity together under Ryan’s leadership gives us an opportunity to build an even more connected and collaborative creative business in one of the most important television markets in the world,” said London-based Matt Forde, president of BBC Studios Global Productions.
Forde called O’Dowd an “outstanding leader” while also praising Linsey for the “enormous contribution” made across an “exceptional career” with the BBC and BBCS. He also thanked Stephenson for the “instrumental” role she has played in building BBCS’s LA-based scripted business.
O’Dowd added: “Los Angeles remains one of the most important creative markets for BBC Studios, and I’m incredibly excited to take on this expanded role. We have tremendous talent and creative ambition across both Scripted and Unscripted, and bringing our production activity together creates new opportunities to collaborate, share ideas and build on the momentum we already have.”
