[zakman440]

Big Brother UK is facing another major change to its senior production team this year after Nick Samwell-Smith announced that he is leaving Endemol Shine.

Samwell-Smith is the managing director for Initial, the Endemol subsidiary responsible for Big Brother, and was put in charge of the reality format when it moved to Channel 5 in 2011.

However, today it was announced that he will depart the production company in May after working there for almost two decades. He will be replaced by Mirella Breda, Initial’s creative director, whose credits include Big Box Little Box and ITV’s recent revival of Stars In Their Eyes.

“I feel very lucky to have had so many fantastic years at such a great company,” he said. “I want to bow out whilst on a high. I know that Initial’s tradition of creating outstanding entertainment shows will be assured under Mirella’s stewardship.”

It is currently unclear whether Breda, who previously worked on Masterchef and Dragon’s Den as an entertainment commissioner at the BBC, will directly assume Samwell-Smith’s responsibilities as Big Brother’s showrunner.

Samwell-Smith’s exit came after Big Brother creative director Denis O’Connor left the show at the end of last summer’s series. Executive producers Susy Price and Katy Manley were promoted to his role, while they were in turn replaced by Andrew Jackman and Shannon Delwiche.

Endemol is currently awaiting a decision on planning permission to build a major extension to the Big Brother house at Elstree Studios, which would be its biggest revamp since it was built in 2002.

http://www.bbspy.co.uk/bb17/news/030...#ixzz42QWnlAIS

Smith's departure can only be a good thing. Hopefully a huge senior production shift is about to take place.