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Cheeks Set for Expanded TV Role at Skydance Post Merger
Confirmed
In Short: George Cheeks may oversee all of the combined company's TV studios post-Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
Deadline reports that George Cheeks, currently the Chair of TV Media at Paramount, is set to oversee the combined company's three TV studios post-merger.
Cheeks' expanded role would include oversight of Warner Bros Television, historically the largest independent TV studio, which has recently pulled away from developing for broadcast.
Sources indicate that Cheeks will also have some oversight of cable brands on the Warner Bros Discovery side, in addition to his current oversight of all linear Paramount networks.
Deadline quotes unnamed sources saying that Cheeks' goal will be to stabilize the company, reorganize, and maximize revenue from titles.
Cheeks previously served as president and CEO of CBS, joining Paramount in March 2020.
His second stint at CBS began after he first joined MTV Networks in 1998, taking on roles including executive vice president of business affairs and general counsel for the Viacom Music and Entertainment Groups.
Variety notes that the biggest question remains whether Channing Dungey, a top TV executive at Warner Bros., will opt to remain and report to Cheeks.
Cheeks was part of a trio titled 'the office of the CEO' under the previous Shari Redstone regime, alongside Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy.
The merger is expected to close on Tuesday, with the newly combined entity taking on the name 'Skydance,' as announced by Ellison on X.
Cheeks' expanded role is part of a broader restructuring plan that includes wide cuts across the company to pay down debt and redistribute resources to streaming and other priorities.
What this adds
Cheeks' expanded role is part of a broader restructuring plan that includes wide cuts across the company to pay down debt and redistribute resources to streaming and other priorities.
The move would keep the number of direct reports to Ellison and Kreiz on par with what they were at Paramount Skydance.
Cheeks' expanded role is expected to be confirmed next week, with a final structure announcement to follow.
Background
Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, who have served as co-chairs of Warner Bros. Pictures, are set to depart their roles following the completion of the merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Actor Mark Ruffalo slammed the approval of the $111 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, calling it a 'bad deal for this country' that will stifle creativity and weaken free speech.
Warner Bros. is a brand name that has been used by several multinational mass media and entertainment companies and corporations, mostly based in the United States, with attributions to Warner Bros. Pictures, a major American film studio founded on April 4, 1923, and the original namesake.
What's confirmed
- Deadline reports that George Cheeks, currently the Chair of TV Media at Paramount, is set to oversee the combined company's three TV studios post-merger.
- Cheeks' expanded role would include oversight of Warner Bros Television, historically the largest independent TV studio, which has recently pulled away from developing for broadcast.
- Sources indicate that Cheeks will also have some oversight of cable brands on the Warner Bros Discovery side, in addition to his current oversight of all linear Paramount networks.
- Deadline quotes unnamed sources saying that Cheeks' goal will be to stabilize the company, reorganize, and maximize revenue from titles.
- Cheeks previously served as president and CEO of CBS, joining Paramount in March 2020.
- His second stint at CBS began after he first joined MTV Networks in 1998, taking on roles including executive vice president of business affairs and general counsel for the Viacom Music and Entertainment Groups.
- Variety notes that the biggest question remains whether Channing Dungey, a top TV executive at Warner Bros., will opt to remain and report to Cheeks.
- Cheeks was part of a trio titled 'the office of the CEO' under the previous Shari Redstone regime, alongside Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy.
- The merger is expected to close on Tuesday, with the newly combined entity taking on the name 'Skydance,' as announced by Ellison on X.
- Cheeks' expanded role is part of a broader restructuring plan that includes wide cuts across the company to pay down debt and redistribute resources to streaming and other priorities.
What's still developing
- More elements of the proposed post-WBD merger Skydance ‘s executive structure are coming into focus ahead of the Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery transaction closing on Tuesday.
- Over the past couple of years, Warner Bros Television, historically the largest independent TV studio that produced Friends, ER and The Big Bang Theory, has pulled away from developing for broadcast where it still has hit shows in ABC’s Abbott Elementary and CBS’ Big Bang spinoff Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage and Fox’s sophomore drama Memory of a Killer.
- (According to the settlement with the 12 state attorneys general, “Paramount and Warner Brothers are required to continue negotiating their cable packages separately.”) In his current post, Cheeks oversees all linear Paramount networks, including CBS (entertainment, sports and news), MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET.
- For instance, Thunell, well-liked by Ellison from their tenure together at Skydance, currently reports to Goldberg who, alongside Greenstein, will have their hands full running both movie studios.
- There had been some speculation that Dungey, given the size and output of Warner Bros TV and her stature as a top TV executive with clout and connections in the industry, may report directly to the CEOs of the combined company as she does now at WBD.
- The move would keep the number of direct reports to Ellison (and now co-CEO Ynon Kreiz) across film, TV and streaming on par with what they were at Paramount Skydance, with Bloys (replacing Cindy Holland, who just stepped down ), Goldberg & Greenstein and Cheeks.
- On Friday, after Ellison shared on X that once Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery combine they will take on the name Skydance, it was also reported Warner Bros. film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy were exiting.
- Discovery assets arriving onboard the Skydance train.
- One scenario making the rounds has Cheeks potentially overseeing all of the vast TV holdings of the combined company, but so far, there’s no firm confirmation and a final structure isn’t expected to be announced until next week.
- Popular on Variety Many of the questions in the more traditional Hollywood world of TV networks and studios — still a hefty revenue driver — have centered on what roles Skydance head David Ellison might have in mind for Warner Bros.