Nick Samwell-Smith to ‘pursue other projects’
Nick Samwell-Smith, the former managing director of Big Brother indie Initial, has departed Tim Hincks’ Expectation Entertainment less than two years after its formation.
Samwell-Smith, Expectation’s creative director, entertainment, was one of a string of heavyweight hires announced when the company formed in late 2016, but a spokeswoman for Expectation said he had “left to pursue other projects”.
Samwell-Smith was joined in February 2017 by Channel 4’s former deputy head of comedy Nerys Evans and Pointless co-creator Nick Mather, with whom he worked on one of Expectation’s earliest commissions, Channel 5 travelogue Dale’s Florida Fly Drive.
He joined Endemol-backed Initial in 1997, becoming creative director in 2006 and managing director in 2013. During his tenure, he produced 15 seasons of Big Brother, along with the likes of Fame Academy, Total Wipeout and Dating in the Dark.
Hincks and Peter Fincham’s Expectation, which was behind Ed Ball’s Travels in Trumpland Travelogue for BBC2, has ramped up its programming in the past few months.
It picked up a first BBC scripted commission – BBC3’s In My Skin - which aired last month, and a second BBC factual order in cooking format The Brigade (w/t), revealed last week.
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