Comedy Central has appointed Lucy Robinson as head of its London-based programming team.

At the same time, Louise Holmes has been promoted to VP, General Manager for Comedy Central UK, Northern and Eastern Europe and will now take lead responsibility for the brand across 33 European countries, including the UK.

Robinson will take up her newly created role as VP, Original Programming with immediate effect, reporting into Jill Offman, EVP, Comedy Central International and Managing Director of Comedy Central UK.

Robinson will oversee all original programme commissions out of the UK as the brand looks to further diversify its British comedy offering, with a brief ranging across non-scripted comedy, entertainment formats, animation, local reversions of Comedy Central’s U.S. hits, such as Drunk History and scripted comedy.

Her primary focus will be developing new hit programmes for Comedy Central’s TV channel in the UK, but with an international remit, she will also play a key role in adapting UK shows that may have wider appeal for international audiences. Robinson will also have a direct line into the Comedy Central U.S. programming team, to facilitate the co-ordination of content between the domestic and international teams.

Holmes meanwhile will now oversee the editorial strategy for the brand and will be looking to build on the recent success in the UK, where the channel is currently experiencing its highest ever year for all day share, up +14% YOY.

The brand’s success is being driven in part by an ongoing increase in original UK productions, commissioned by Holmes in her previous role as VP Programming, including: the highly rated comedy gameshow, Your Face or Mine; Stand Up Central, now going into a third series with Chris Ramsey at the helm; Russell Howard & Mum: Road Trip, which is returning for two further series in 2018; and, Roast Battle UK – a local version of the hugely successful Comedy Central US series, which began production this week. 

Robinson has a long list of credits to her name and has produced a number of successful comedy and drama hits including all three series of BBC/LitteComet’s Pramface, Talback/Channel 4’s The 11 O’Clock Show, Kudos /BBC 1’s Hustle III and BBC’s The Wrong Mans. Earlier this year Robinson series produced World Productions/Channel 4’s dark psychological thriller, Born to Kill.