Netflix fired the boss who took Squid Game global — and now wants American hits instead

Netflix confirmed on 15 October 2026 that chief content officer Bela Bajaria is leaving after a decade at the company, and named former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice as her replacement. A day earlier the streamer had laid off around 1,000 people, 6% of its staff and its biggest cut to date. According to Deadline, Bajaria may only have been told on Monday, the same day she collected a Variety award at MIPCOM in Cannes.

Ted Sarandos's memo to staff was warm, then very specific:

"I also see an opportunity to take our slate to the next level, especially in UCAN where we have an outsize impact in creating big, buzzy hits that our members love and drive conversation around the world."

— Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-CEO, in a memo to staff

UCAN is Netflix-speak for the US and Canada. Not Seoul, not Madrid, not Mumbai. Two paragraphs after praising her "truly global" organisation, the memo points the next chapter at one region.

The executive who bet on the rest of the world

Bajaria joined in 2016 to build the unscripted division, took charge of all television in 2020 when Sarandos merged English-language and international content under her, and became chief content officer in January 2023. Her record, partly by Sarandos's own list:

• International hits: Squid Game, Lupin, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
• Global footprint: almost two dozen international offices opened on her watch, per Variety.
• The big one: Squid Game season one is still the most-watched show in Netflix history, at 265.2 million views. In Korean.

None of that is the problem on the spreadsheet. The problem is America. Netflix's US and Canada revenue growth slowed from 14% to 10% in the second quarter, and viewing hours in the region fell, according to a BMO research note that cut its revenue forecasts after the shake-up. Shares are down 20% this year. Netflix still made $11 billion in net profit in 2025, so the belt-tightening is a bit cheeky.

Nearly a dozen industry sources told Variety the same word about Bajaria: "scapegoat". One put it plainly: "People always blame the content, but you don't lay off 1,000 people unless there's a big problem with the business model."

What Peter Rice is good at

Rice is genuinely respected. He ran Fox Searchlight in the Slumdog Millionaire and Juno years, then Fox Networks Group, then Disney's entire television operation until 2022. Since then he has produced 28 Years Later and its sequel. Deadline points out the obvious gap: he arrives with no streaming experience, and he is known for betting on quality.

Read more: Omar Sy finally runs Lupin — and he's turning Netflix's heist hit into a superhero show

That is a very American CV. It reads like the man you hire to find the next The Bear or Abbott Elementary, which is fair enough if you live in Ohio.

Netflix didn't sack Bajaria for missing hits. It sacked her for missing the right country.

Here is the worry for everyone else. Budgets are not infinite, and the memo has told the whole company where attention should go. Korean, Spanish and Indian series were how Netflix stopped being an American cable alternative and became the default telly from Seoul to São Paulo. When the brief is "buzzy hits" in UCAN, the easiest line to trim is the one that pays off outside it.

What happens next

Rice starts next week. Netflix reports third-quarter results on Tuesday 20 October, and Sarandos and co-CEO Greg Peters hold a company-wide town hall the following day. Film chief Dan Lin, Deadline says, may be next.

Nobody has cancelled anything yet. But the next Squid Game will be pitched to a man whose boss has just told him which audience counts. The last one was made in Korean for the whole world. The next one might simply never get the green light.

Read more: The Pitt made doctors heroes — Netflix's Doctor X is a global hit for doing the opposite