Frances Berwick

As President, Lifestyle Networks, NBCUniversal, Frances Berwick spearheads the strategic oversight of Bravo Media, E! Entertainment, Oxygen Media, Universal Kids and hayu. Berwick oversees the daily operations for the networks including development, production, program planning, marketing, research, digital and communications. Berwick reports to Mark Lazarus, Chairman, NBCUniversal Broadcast, Cable, Sports and News.

Under Berwick’s leadership, Bravo has maintained itself as the #1 cable network among female viewers with popular series including Emmy Award-winning “Top Chef,” “Project Runway,” “Vanderpump Rules,” “Southern Charm,” and the “Below Deck,” “Million Dollar Listing” and “The Real Housewives” franchises. Bravo achieved its highest ranking ever in 2019 as the #4 cable entertainment network among both P18-49 and P25-54. Bravo continues to hold the most affluent audience in cable entertainment. In 2019, she oversaw the execution of BravoCon, the first-ever immersive experience designed for the Bravo superfan. The event was attended by over 10,000 consumers and sold out in 60 seconds. Additionally, Berwick was instrumental in bringing the critically acclaimed anthology series “Dirty John” to the network, which was the second highest rated scripted series on all of cable while also garnering the largest ratings growth from premiere to finale among all new cable series.

At Oxygen, she spearheaded the shift to a multiplatform true crime destination in 2017, which resulted in it becoming one of the fastest growing cable networks. Oxygen experienced double digit growth led by popular original series that includes the flagship “Snapped” franchise, “Cold Justice,” “Killer Couples,” “Criminal Confessions,” “In Ice Cold Blood,” and breakout hit event series such as “Dirty John, The Dirty Truth,” “Dahmer on Dahmer: A Killer Speaks,” and “Aaron Hernandez Uncovered.”

Since taking on E!, Berwick has led the network’s success as a global, multi-platform pop culture powerhouse. E! continues to attract a young, trend-setting, upscale audience, with some of TV’s most buzzy unscripted programming, including “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” “Very Cavallari,” and “Botched,” as well as being the pre-eminent destination for entertainment news and live events coverage, including signature franchise “Live from the Red Carpet” and tentpoles New York Fashion Week and Met Gala. “E! News” continues to rank as the #1 entertainment media brand on social media with over one billion monthly engagements. Under her leadership, E! also became the home of the “E! People’s Choice Awards,” which aired this past November for the second time on the network and garnered a 41 percent gain versus the previous year. Additionally, the growth among total viewers marked the biggest entertainment awards show gain of the year across all of television.

Berwick is leading the network’s mission to activate the sense of playful adventure in every kid, every day at Universal Kids. In 2017, Berwick oversaw the preschool network’s rebrand and transformation from Sprout into Universal Kids, which expanded the target audience from preschool age up to 11-year olds. Universal Kids is anchored by unscripted originals like “American Ninja Warrior Junior” and the best of international originals and acquired animation including “DreamWorks Where’s Waldo?”

Berwick recently added hayu to her purview, the first all-reality subscription video-on-demand service of its kind – curated and fully integrated with social media – and available in the UK, Ireland, Australia, the Nordics, Canada and Asia. Over 6,000 episodes are available to stream including “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” as well as “The Real Housewives,” “Million Dollar Listing” and “Top Chef” franchises among others.

As General Manager of Bravo from 2008-2010, Berwick oversaw a 33 percent increase in original content and led her team to four consecutive years of record-breaking successes across all ratings and financial metrics. Highlights include a 2008 Peabody Award win for “Project Runway" and a refresh of the brand with the 'By Bravo' tagline in 2009. With a mandate to evolve Bravo from a television network into a lifestyle brand, the network also launched three “Top Chef” cookbooks (two landed on the New York Times best-sellers list), a “Real Housewives” franchise book as well as numerous consumer product extensions – all while delivering more than a 30 percent increase in total revenue to the network since 2008.

From 2005-2008, Berwick was Executive Vice President, Programming and Production, where she supervised all of Bravo's development, production, scheduling and acquisitions. Earlier in her career, Berwick oversaw the development and production for the successful Emmy-winning series "Queer Eye" after the brand's 2002 acquisition by NBC. She also developed, produced and launched Emmy winners "Top Chef" and "Project Runway," two-time Emmy winner "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List," Emmy-winning original series, "Inside the Actors Studio," as well as the "The Real Housewives" franchise, which has since become a global phenomenon. In 1996, Berwick joined Bravo from Britain's Channel 4, where she headed international TV distribution and licensing. It was there that she sold shows and formats and Film4 Productions including “Four Weddings and A Funeral," "Don't Forget Your Toothbrush" and "Whose Line Is It Anyway." Prior to that, she was in the sponsorship division at Sadler's Wells (a leading London Theater), where she raised funds for stage productions.

Berwick has received numerous accolades throughout her career including two Peabody Awards, three Primetime Emmys and a National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Communications Award (NAMIC). In addition, Berwick was presented with the Muse Award for Outstanding Vision and Achievement in 2013 by New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT), and has also been named a Multichannel News Wonder Woman and one of The Hollywood Reporter’s Power 100 Women in Entertainment. Berwick is a member of New York Women in Film & Television, British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS).

Berwick has a Master's degree from Edinburgh University and resides in Manhattan with her husband and son.