{"id":2288962,"date":"2026-02-19T12:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2288962"},"modified":"2026-02-19T12:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:07:14","slug":"bbc-hires-universals-ed-havard-who-led-on-the-bbc-nbc-traitors-deal-to-run-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/bbc-hires-universals-ed-havard-who-led-on-the-bbc-nbc-traitors-deal-to-run-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Hires Universal\u2019s Ed Havard, Who Led On The BBC-NBC \u2018Traitors\u2019 Deal, To Run Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">One of the architects behind the BBC and NBC\u2019s <em>The Traitors <\/em>deal has joined the corporation to run entertainment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Ed Havard is exiting his SVP role at Universal International Studios (UIS) to become Director of Entertainment at the Beeb, while Fiona Campbell takes on the Director of Factual role amid the biggest restructure since content chief Kate Phillips took over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>More from Deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The pair are effectively replacing Phillips, who previously ran unscriped and therefore both genres. Her place was taken briefly by Havard\u2019s <em>Traitors <\/em>counterpart Syeda Irtizaali, but Irtizaali <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/tv\/articles\/traitors-exec-syeda-irtizaali-moving-091412891.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:recently moved to Netflix.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\">recently moved to Netflix.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The roles are two of the biggest in British broadcasting and bring to an end a lengthy interview process. Havard will oversee hundred of hours of entertainment a year including the likes of <em>The Traitors, Strictly Come Dancing <\/em>and <em>RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race UK. <\/em>Campbell\u2019s factual brief will include arts and documentaries, with her hire coming a few weeks after docs boss Clare Sillery exited. She will also oversee international docs strand Storyville.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Havard has spent the past four years running UK unscripted for UIS, which has incorporated <em>The Traitors <\/em>on the BBC and in the U.S. on Peacock. He helped shepherd the landmark deal that brought <em>The Traitors <\/em>to screen on both sides of the pond and also worked on its follow-up, <em>Destination X. <\/em>The next show from the deal, which will come from original British IP, is currently being pitched by UK producers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Havard is a former Channel 4 entertainment boss whose credits include <em>The Last Leg <\/em>and <em>The Lateish Show with Mo Gilligan.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The highly-rated Campbell was previously director of youth audiences and had been running unscripted on an interim basis following Irtizaali\u2019s exit. She shepherded BBC Three for many years and used to work across news and current affairs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Phillips said Havard and Campbell are \u201cinspirational leaders who will ensure that Entertainment and Factual continue to thrive on the BBC.\u201d \u201cCrucially they both put creativity and audiences first and will bring a real energy, clarity and ambition to their teams,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Both Havard and Campbell will begin their roles in the spring.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Best of Deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Sign up for <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cloud.email.deadline.com\/signup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Deadline's Newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Deadline&#8217;s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/31XsHSx\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2TkcoeG\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Twitter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Twitter<\/a>, and <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2TntOHq\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the architects behind the BBC and NBC\u2019s The Traitors deal has joined the corporation to run entertainment. Ed Havard is exiting his SVP role at Universal International Studios (UIS) to become Director of Entertainment at the Beeb, while Fiona Campbell takes on the Director of Factual role amid the biggest restructure since content [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2288963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[443552,21741,430444,399703,443554,206198,443553],"class_list":["post-2288962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-ed-havard","tag-entertainment","tag-fiona-campbell","tag-kate-phillips","tag-syeda-irtizaali","tag-the-traitors","tag-universal-international-studios"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/BBC-Hires-Universals-Ed-Havard-Who-Led-On-The-BBC-NBC.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2288962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2288962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2288962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2288964,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2288962\/revisions\/2288964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2288963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2288962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2288962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2288962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}