Louise Holmes exits Comedy Central for Facebook

Comedy Central general manager Louise Holmes is leaving after six years to join Facebook.

Holmes, who was also responsible for Viacom stablemate Paramount Network UK, will join the social media giant in January as director of entertainment partnerships for EMEA.

In the London-based role, she will be responsible for leading Facebook’s relationships with broadcasters, producers and creators, as well as digital publishers, helping them to create content and projects that make full use of the platform’s capability and range of products.

Holmes will manage the dedicated partnership leads of central and eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, southern Europe and the recently-appointed head of northern Europe Anna Higgs, who has joined from Facebook’s sales team.

Holmes will report to global entertainment partnerships vice president Sibyl Goldman.

She leaves Comedy Central as it enters a new era, with Channel 5 director of programmes Ben Frow preparing to expand his remit to take on responsibility from Jill Offman, who remains its international chief.

Yesterday, Broadcast revealed that Comedy Central has put its originations strategy on hold as Frow assesses its output.

After joining Comedy Central from the BBC in 2013, Holmes was responsible for a range of commissions including the reinvention of Your Face Or Mine?, which was originally for E4.

Talkback’s format, which is fronted by Jimmy Carr and Katherine Ryan, has had six series on Comedy Central.

Holmes’ other notable successes include Fulwell 73’s Roast Battle UK, which has had four outings, Tiger Aspect’s Drunk History and Avalon’s Russell Howard & Mum. Most recently, she rebooted classic gameshow Blockbusters with Thames.

The originations, coupled with a diversified acquisitions strategy, helped increase Comedy Central’s share of 16-34s in prime time by 50% over her tenure and steered the channel to a best entertainment channel win at the 2019 Broadcast Digital Awards. 

In July she kicked off a short-form scripted drive following the launch of digital-first show Bad Cramps, which came through Viacom Digital Studios International.