All three Skydance TV studios are set to answer to one executive: George Cheeks, Paramount’s chair of TV Media, Deadline reported. Cheeks is set to add Warner Bros. Television and Paramount Television Studios to CBS Studios, which he already oversees, just days before the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger is expected to close Oct. 6, according to sources cited by Deadline.
Who will report to George Cheeks
Cheeks has overseen CBS Studios since he joined what was then ViacomCBS in 2020. CBS Studios President David Stapf already reports to him. Under the new setup, Channing Dungey, chair and CEO of Warner Bros. Television Group, and Matt Thunell, president of Paramount Television Studios, would stay on but report to Cheeks, according to Deadline and TheWrap.
Cheeks also runs the company’s networks and cable brands, including CBS, BET, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, TheWrap reported. His earlier TV studio experience includes a stint as vice chairman of NBCUniversal Content Studios, according to Deadline. Thunell was tasked last fall with combining Skydance Television and Paramount’s cable production units into Paramount Television Studios.
Why the Skydance TV studios were combined under one leader
Deadline noted that Thunell currently reports to Dana Goldberg, who will run the combined movie studios with Josh Greenstein and will have little time left to manage a TV operation. Putting all three studios under Cheeks also keeps the executive structure similar to what existed before the merger: Casey Bloys is in line to run the combined HBO Max and Paramount+ streaming business, Greenstein and Goldberg are poised to oversee the film studios, and Cheeks would lead television. Read more about that film leadership in our report on Greenstein and Goldberg running the combined movie studios.
Deadline also reported that Cheeks’ expanded role is expected to include some oversight of cable brands from the Warner Bros. Discovery side. A settlement with 12 state attorneys general, however, requires Paramount to negotiate basic cable distribution deals separately for five years, according to Fast Company. Deadline also noted that the structure could position the three studios for future consolidation. Disney took six years after acquiring Fox assets to merge its three TV studios.
What the Skydance TV studios make
The three Skydance TV studios bring a deep catalog. CBS Studios produces shows such as NCIS, Fire Country, Matlock and Ghosts. Paramount Television Studios produces the Taylor Sheridan slate for Paramount+, including Reacher. Warner Bros. Television is behind The Pitt and Ted Lasso, TheWrap reported. For now, CBS Studios has the clearest role as the main supplier to CBS, while Warner Bros. Television and Paramount Television Studios have some overlap in their output, according to Deadline.
Warner Bros. Television has pulled back from developing for broadcast in recent years, though it still supplies Abbott Elementary on ABC and the Big Bang Theory spinoff Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage on CBS, Deadline reported. It is unclear whether that will change now that the studio would sit alongside a broadcast network, CBS, for the first time.
What the state settlement requires
The consent decree that cleared the way for the merger carries commitments that affect the combined company’s production plans. According to Fast Company, Paramount pledged $1.5 billion in additional U.S. film production spending over five years and release 30 films a year for two years, then 32 a year for three more. It must also negotiate basic cable channel deals separately for five years and set up a News Editorial Independence Board to monitor CBS and CNN within 180 days.
Those terms mostly concern film and news, but they shape the environment Cheeks will work in as he takes charge of the Skydance TV studios and their cable ties. Most of the commitments last five years, so they will frame the job for some time.
Merger status and what’s next
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved Paramount’s settlement with 12 states, clearing the way for the deal to close Oct. 6, Fast Company reported. The deal is valued at about $81 billion, or roughly $111 billion including debt.
David Ellison does not gain operational control of Warner Bros. Discovery until the deal closes, so the final structure for the Skydance TV studios is expected to be settled after that. Separately, Warner Bros. film chiefs Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca are expected to exit, as we covered in our De Luca and Abdy exit report.
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