Kirstine Stewart
General Manager, CBC English Television
Kirstine Stewart holds one of the highest profile jobs in Canadian television. As general manager of CBC English Television, Stewart is the network’s “chief creative officer,” overseeing and commissioning drama, comedy, arts, current affairs and documentaries.
Since coming to the CBC in 2006, Stewart has revitalized ratings and generated new revenue for the broadcaster, all while recognizing the CBC’s public service mandate. Additionally, CBC is the only conventional Canadian network whose audience share has grown consistently over the past four seasons.
Stewart has overseen the launch of such hits as Dragons’ Den, Little Mosque on the Prairie, 18 to Life, Republic of Doyle, The Border, Being Erica, Battle of the Blades, Heartland, The Tudors, The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos and The Next Great Prime Minister. She has also nurtured the ongoing development of CBC’s legacy programming—shows such as Marketplace, the fifth estate, The Nature of Things, Rick Mercer Report and Hockey Night in Canada.
This strategy of programming original, quality Canadian content that reflects and showcases Canada has paid off with—again—CBC-TV’s highest audience share in years, but also numerous awards and much critical praise. And Stewart notes that CBC has proven Canadians want to see themselves and their stories reflected in their daily entertainment, and will support high-quality Canadian television when given the opportunity.
Kirstine is a board member for the Banff Television Festival and a member of the Young Global Leaders association, selected to advise the annual World Economic Forum of Davos, Switzerland.
Recently, Stewart organized the Canadian networks’ efforts to support the rebuilding of Haiti through ‘Canada for Haiti’, a one hour special appearing simultaneously across all Canadian broadcasters raising over $12million Cdn for the cause. She has been invited to attend the Kennedy School of Harvard as part of her association with the YGL and has been awarded the Canadian Women in Communications highest honour, Woman of the Year for 2010.
Prior to her current role at CBC, Stewart was senior VP at Alliance Atlantis, overseeing eight channels, including BBC Canada, National Geographic Canada and Home and Garden Television. She also worked in the U.S. as programming VP at Hallmark Entertainment, overseeing programming of 17 international broadcast channels.
