Bela Bajaria leaves Netflix after decade as Peter Rice takes content reins

Bela Bajaria is leaving Netflix after 10 years as its chief content officer, with former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice named as her replacement, Variety reported on 15 October 2026.

Bajaria was the executive in charge of what Netflix makes and buys. Rice will now take that job. He will lead the global content organisation overseeing scripted and unscripted series, film and live events across all regions, according to the report.

The change comes with deep cuts. Around 1,000 employees were laid off this week, about 6% of the company. That is Netflix's largest workforce reduction to date, Variety reported.

Two film executives are among those leaving. Vice-president Doug Belgrad and director Sheroum Kim were laid off as part of the restructuring.

Bajaria joined Netflix in 2016 after serving as president of Universal Television at NBCUniversal, the studio arm that makes television shows for broadcast and cable networks. She was put in charge of global television in 2020 and then named chief content officer in January 2023.

What makes this stand out is the scale and the timing. A change at the top and a thousand departures in the same week reshapes the team that chooses what appears on the home screen for more than 300 million subscribers worldwide. Rice, who previously ran television operations at Fox and later oversaw entertainment at Disney, now takes charge of that slate.