Chris McCumber, the president of Blumhouse Television, is stepping down from his role, Variety has confirmed.
Blumhouse TV’s president of production Jeremy Gold will step into the top spot at the company on an interim basis. Chris Dickie, head of scripted at Blumhouse TV, will also be assisting during the transition. In addition, Blumhouse’s TV division is undergoing a round of layoffs. The number of people being laid off is said to be less than 10.
“We’ve always thrived by delivering what the market needs,” said Blumhouse president Abhijay Prakash. “So as the television marketplace evolves, we’re evolving too so we can focus on our existing projects and continue to do what we do best, and that’s producing great programming responsibly. I want to thank Chris McCumber for his great leadership over the past three years, building the team and the business, including getting two of our largest series orders ever on the board, with The Bondsman and Scarpetta. He laid a great foundation for the company’s next phase. We are also very grateful to Jeremy Gold and Chris Dickie for stepping up to lead the division.”
McCumber became president of Blumhouse TV in 2020. He joined the company from NBCUniversal, where he most recently led the entertainment networks division. That encompassed the entertainment cable networks such as USA Network and Syfy. He first joined USA Network in 2001, where he developed, greenlit and launched series including “Suits,” “Mr. Robot,” “Queen of the South,” “Chrisley Knows Best,” “Psych,” and “The Sinner.” McCumber also led negotiations for major NBCU programming deals, ranging from “WWE SmackDown!” to Harry Potter Wizarding World to “Modern Family.”
“I want to thank Jason Blum and the entire team at Blumhouse for their incredible partnership and support. I’m so proud of what we accomplished in growing the business and producing a slate of terrific projects,” McCumber said. “Even as our industry continues to go through massive change, I truly believe that disruption breeds opportunity and growth – especially when it comes to great storytelling.”
Since McCumber joined Blumhouse, the company has set up a wide range of projects. Those include the upcoming comedy series “The Sticky” starring character actress Margo Martindale, the horror action series “The Bondsman” starring Kevin Bacon, and a series based on the Kay Scarpetta novels starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Nicole Kidman. All three shows are set up at Amazon.
Deadline first reported McCumber’s exit.