As executive leadership for the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger takes shape, George Cheeks is set to oversee all of Skydance’s television production studios.
Warner Bros. TV, CBS Studios and Paramount Television Studios will now fall under his jurisdiction. Cheeks currently serves as chair of TV Media at Paramount, reporting to CEO David Ellison.
Cheeks already oversees CBS Studios, along with network CBS and cable operations like BET, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, among others. Under the restructuring, Warner Bros. Television chairman and CEO Channing Dungey and Paramount Television’s president Matt Thunell are expected to both stay on and report to Cheeks, along with CBS Studios president David Stapf.
A Paramount spokesperons declined to comment to TheWrap.
This move could lend itself to future consolidation. Warner Bros. TV is historically the largest independent TV studio, but it has rolled back its production on broadcast hits, leaving that to the networks to produce in house. It remains unclear whether or not that would change as the company integrates itself with CBS.
CBS Studios is known for producing network shows like the “NCIS” and “Fire Country” franchises as well as “Matlock” and “Ghosts.” WBTV recent hits include “The Pitt,” “Ted Lasso” and the breakout debuts of “Rooster” and “Stuart Fails To Save the Universe.”
Paramount TV currently produces the entire Taylor Sheridan universe for Paramount+. Shows include “Reacher,” “Neagley” and “Lioness.”
This follows a similar executive structure as the newly formed Skydance has on the movie studio side. Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures both fall under Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg as Skydance’s movie studios. And with Cindy Holland out at Paramount as of Tuesday, the space is open for Casey Bloys to run both HBO Max and Paramount+ on the streaming side.
