Netflix has been the protagonist of one of the most turbulent weeks in its recent history. Just one day after confirming the largest job cut in its history, with approximately 1,000 positions eliminated, the company announced that Bela Bajaria, its Chief Content Officer and one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood, is leaving the company after nearly a decade at the helm of its catalog.
Her replacement will be Peter Rice, a former Walt Disney Television executive and Fox veteran, who will take control of Netflix's entire global content operation starting October 26.
The news was broken by the outlet Puck, which described Bajaria's departure as surprising but not entirely unexpected, given the current moment Netflix is going through.
The largest layoffs in Netflix history
Last Wednesday, October 14, co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters communicated internally to employees that the company would lay off approximately 1,000 people, around 6% of its workforce. Netflix had about 16,000 full-time employees at the end of 2025, so the cut affects a considerable portion of the company.
According to Variety, most of the cuts are concentrated in the product, technology, legal, and human resources areas, although they have also affected public relations, communications, marketing, and, once again, the gaming division. The impact has also extended to content, both in television and film, and has reached staff in different countries.
In the internal memo, Sarandos and Peters noted that the company's mission requires being disciplined when allocating staff and resources, although they insisted that Netflix will continue to invest aggressively in the areas of greatest impact. The company also stated that it remains on track to meet its full-year forecasts.
To put this in context, the last time Netflix made cuts of a similar magnitude was in 2022, when it laid off about 450 employees in two rounds. This week's layoffs more than double that figure.
The timing is also significant: Netflix will present its third-quarter 2026 results next Tuesday, October 20, so numerous questions about this decision are expected during the investor conference.
The legacy of Bela Bajaria after a decade at Netflix
It is difficult to overstate the extent to which the current Netflix was shaped by Bela Bajaria. She joined the company in 2016, shortly after leaving NBCUniversal, where she had been president of Universal Television, and initially led the unscripted content catalog. By 2020, she was already leading the entire global television operation, and in January 2023, she was named Chief Content Officer, in the same move that made Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters co-CEOs of the company. That role put her in charge of an annual content budget of about $20 billion, distributed among series, film, non-fiction, and live events.
During her tenure, Netflix experienced some of its biggest hits: Bridgerton (2020) and Squid Game (2021) arrived shortly after she took over television management, and Squid Game became the most-watched series in the platform's history. They were followed by Wednesday, Arcane, One Piece, Baby Reindeer, and Adolescence, as well as the final season of Stranger Things. Even so, the reference article itself points out that Netflix's fiction catalog depends today more than ever on short-lived limited series, with few new franchises that can sustain the platform over the next decade.
Bajaria was also the main driver of the "local-for-local" content strategy, which placed Korean, Spanish, Indian, and other non-English-speaking market productions at the center of the catalog, rather than treating them as filler. Under her mandate, non-fiction content went from being a secondary section to becoming a pillar of Netflix's offering, with titles like Love Is Blind, Selling Sunset, or Squid Game: The Challenge. Sarandos himself attributed this credit directly to her in today's statement.
Perhaps her most structural legacy is the push for live events and sports: The Roast of Tom Brady, the fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, the NFL games on Christmas Day, and the ten-year deal with WWE Raw were developed under her leadership, turning Netflix into a platform to tune into at specific moments. In the film arena, as she was also responsible for it as Chief Content Officer, the record success of KPop Demon Hunters—the most-watched film in Netflix history—occurred during her management.
Not everything was praise. According to Puck, Bajaria showed a preference for broad and popular programming, a deliberate decision to expand Netflix's audience beyond its prestige roots marked by House of Cards, but that approach also generated criticism for prioritizing quantity over quality, something especially visible in Netflix's worst streak at the Emmy Awards in a decade.
The bigger problem has been retaining the audience. In July, a Bloomberg report showed how many viewers abandon Netflix series after the first season: One Piece lost more than 30% of its audience in the second season, Beef fell more than 70% in its second installment, and The Night Agent lost half of its viewers in the second season and another 35% in the third. The last season of Avatar: The Last Airbender fell more than 60% in its first week, while Running Point and The Four Seasons were renewed despite losing more than half of their audience.
As Sarandos noted in today's statement: "She led huge changes at Netflix."
Who is Peter Rice, the new head of content
If you have watched television or movies in the last 30 years, it is almost certain that you have seen a project in which Peter Rice had a hand. Most recently, he was chairman of Walt Disney Television and chairman of General Entertainment at Disney, overseeing everything from ABC, FX, and Hulu to National Geographic and 20th Television, with more than 300 shows a year under his responsibility. The Bear, Shogun, Abbott Elementary, and Only Murders in the Building came out of that framework.
Before that, Rice spent decades at Fox, including running the independent film label Fox Searchlight, responsible for Slumdog Millionaire, Juno, and Little Miss Sunshine, and was the supervising creative executive for the first X-Men movie.
He was fired from Disney in 2022 by then-CEO Bob Chapek. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he has more recently been overseeing content for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, in addition to producing films such as 28 Years Later and its sequel, The Social Reckoning, as well as Warfare and Saturday Night.
Sarandos defined him in today's statement as "one of the most effective large-scale operators in the entertainment industry," while Rice stated that Netflix has shown it is willing to bet on distinctive voices and fresh ideas.
According to Puck, Rice brings a notably different sensibility than Bajaria. He is known as an executive close to talent and oriented toward prestige, which could signal a change in the type of projects Netflix decides to produce in the coming years. His experience managing the integration of Fox into Disney is also relevant if Netflix considers buying a studio again, something industry sources have been pointing to for some time after the loss of Warner Bros. to Paramount Skydance, with NBCUniversal being the most mentioned target.
The situation of Dan Lin, head of film at Netflix, also remains to be resolved. According to Puck, Lin is expected to follow in Bajaria's footsteps and leave the company, although that decision will now depend on Peter Rice.
The context: from the failure with Warner Bros. to the drop in engagement
A good part of Netflix's current problems can be traced back to last December, when the company agreed to acquire Warner Bros., including HBO, HBO Max, and its film and television studios, in a deal valued at about $82.7 billion. However, Paramount Skydance launched a hostile bid for the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery a few days later, sparking a public bidding war that lasted for months.
At the end of February, after Paramount raised its offer to $31 per share (about $111 billion), Netflix decided not to match it, arguing that the deal was no longer financially attractive. The company walked away with a $2.8 billion breakup fee.
According to the analysis in the reference article, when the deal fell through, Netflix did not have an obvious plan B. Much of the innovation beyond the usual pace of new series and films has focused on the push toward creator content from YouTube and podcasts, a section that generated so little audience that it was grouped into the "other" category in the platform's engagement reports.
Engagement data also shows signs of wear. According to Puck, engagement grew only 2% during the first half of 2026, and Nielsen data for July places Netflix at 7.8% of all connected TV consumption in the United States, compared to 14.2% for YouTube. Sarandos himself admitted at a Bloomberg conference last month that Netflix "is not growing as fast" as he would like.
The human cost of the cuts
The future of Netflix will be a subject of debate over the coming months, but the most relevant news of the week remains the approximately 1,000 people who were left without jobs. Many of them built and maintained the products and services that millions of users use daily, and they are now entering a labor market already weakened by the reduction in productions and cuts at Disney, NBCUniversal, and other companies in the sector.
Netflix will present its third-quarter 2026 results next Tuesday, October 20, which could shed more light on the impact of these changes and Peter Rice's first moves at the helm of the platform's global content.
Frequently asked questions about the departure of Bela Bajaria and the arrival of Peter Rice at Netflix
Why is Bela Bajaria leaving Netflix?
Netflix has announced her departure after nearly a decade at the company, coinciding with a cut of about 1,000 jobs. The source does not detail the exact reasons for her departure beyond the company's official confirmation.
Who is replacing Bela Bajaria as Chief Content Officer?
Peter Rice, former chairman of Walt Disney Television and a veteran Fox executive, will take on the role of Chief Content Officer for Netflix starting October 26.
How many employees has Netflix laid off?
Netflix confirmed the layoff of approximately 1,000 employees, around 6% of its total workforce, which had about 16,000 full-time employees at the end of 2025.
Which areas of Netflix have been most affected by the layoffs?
According to Variety, the cuts mainly affected product, technology, legal, and human resources, in addition to public relations, marketing, and the gaming division, with an impact also on television and film content globally.
What is the relationship between Bela Bajaria’s departure and the failed purchase of Warner Bros.?
The article notes that Netflix's failed attempt to acquire Warner Bros. at the end of 2025 and beginning of 2026 contributed to generating uncertainty about the company's growth strategy, although Bajaria's departure is not directly attributed to that failure.
What projects stand out in Peter Rice’s career?
Peter Rice was behind series and films such as The Bear, Shogun, Abbott Elementary, Only Murders in the Building, Slumdog Millionaire, Juno, and Little Miss Sunshine, in addition to having been a creative executive on the first X-Men movie.
