Jennifer Salke renews contract at NBC as president of entertainment

Jennifer Salke will stay on at NBC, renewing her contract to serve as entertainment president.

Salke’s contract was slated to expire later this year. The extension keeps her on for at least three more years.

Salke, a former 20th Century Fox TV executive, joined NBC in 2011 as entertainment president under NBC’s Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt.

As entertainment president, she has overseen all aspects of prime-time and daytime programming, including comedy and drama development. In 2012, she expanded her purview to include the Universal Television studio arm.

Greenblatt announced Salke’s extension in an internal memo Tuesday morning.

“I’m pleased to share the news that we’ve renewed Jennifer Salke as President of NBC Entertainment,� he said in the memo. “I know she’s committed to her incredibly hard-working staff and is as dedicated as anyone here to making sure we maintain our strong leadership position among the broadcast networks.�

During Salke’s tenure at the network, NBC has climbed out of its ratings hole with the help of “Sunday Night Football� and “The Voice.� Salke oversaw 2013’s big scripted hit, “The Blacklist.� It finished last season No. 1 in adults 18 to 49.

And while the network had the Super Bowl this year, helping to give it a bump, the season has otherwise been tough. The network has launched no breakout new series. And its recent move to dump comedies from its Thursday lineup in favor of dramas hasn’t paid off.

Greenblatt expressed optimism in having Salke stay on to handle the programming puzzle.

Greenblatt’s memo continued: “We all know the many challenges in front of us, and I’m very happy she will continue to lead the charge on the scripted front -- and I know all of our producers and writers, such as Dick Wolf and Mark Burnett, feel the same way.�

I tweet about TV (and other things) here: @villarrealy