George Cheeks is expected to gain oversight of Warner Bros. Television and Paramount Television Studios alongside CBS Studios under the executive structure taking shape for the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery combination, people familiar with the plans said.
The expanded remit would put all three television studios under Cheeks, Paramount’s Chair of TV Media and a senior member of CEO David Ellison’s team. The transaction is scheduled to close Oct. 6.
Cheeks has overseen CBS Studios since joining then-ViacomCBS in 2020, with studio president David Stapf reporting to him. Under the proposed structure, Warner Bros. Television Group and US Networks Chairman and CEO Channing Dungey and Paramount Television Studios President Matt Thunell would remain in their roles and report to Cheeks.
Film, television and streaming take shape
The arrangement is part of a broader division of leadership across the combined company’s content businesses. Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg are poised to oversee the Warner Bros. and Paramount movie studios, while HBO’s Casey Bloys is in line to lead the combination of HBO Max and Paramount+. Bloys would take the place in the top reporting structure previously occupied by Cindy Holland, who recently stepped down.
That setup would keep the number of direct reports to Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz across film, television and streaming roughly in line with the structure at Paramount Skydance: Cheeks for television, Goldberg and Greenstein for film, and Bloys for streaming.
Cheeks’ post-merger role is also said to include some form of oversight of Warner Bros. Discovery’s cable brands. The precise scope remains uncertain, and a settlement with 12 state attorneys general requires that “Paramount and Warner Brothers are required to continue negotiating their cable packages separately.”
His current portfolio already covers Paramount’s linear brands, including CBS entertainment, sports and news, as well as MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET. Although Cheeks comes from a legal and business background, he is also known for creative involvement with the brands he manages and is credited with recognizing the franchise potential of CBS’ Fire Country. His earlier studio experience includes serving as Vice Chairman of NBCUniversal Content Studios.
Three studios with distinct strengths — and some overlap
CBS Studios has the clearest individual lane of the three operations. It is the primary supplier to CBS, houses Star Trek and also sells selectively to third parties. Its CBS productions include the NCIS and Fire Country franchises, Matlock and Ghosts, while it is also producing Little House in the Prairie for Netflix.
Warner Bros. Television and Paramount Television Studios currently have more areas of overlap. Both have been assigned to develop intellectual property connected to their sister film studios, and each has served as a major supplier to its affiliated streamer — HBO Max for WBTV and Paramount+ for PTVS. Both studios also actively sell programming across the wider streaming market.
Warner Bros. Television, historically the largest independent television studio, produced Friends, ER and The Big Bang Theory. In recent years, it has moved away from broadcast development as networks increasingly favor in-house suppliers. It nevertheless has broadcast shows including ABC’s Abbott Elementary, CBS’ Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage and Fox’s second-season drama Memory of a Killer.
Among WBTV’s recent highlights are The Pitt, which repeated as the Emmy winner for Outstanding Drama Series, and the return of Ted Lasso. New series Rooster and The Big Bang Theory spinoff Stuart Fails to Save the Universe have both been renewed for second seasons.
Thunell assembled the current Paramount Television Studios operation last fall by integrating Skydance Television with Paramount’s cable production units, including Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios, Nickelodeon live-action and Awesomeness. PTVS produces the full Taylor Sheridan slate for Paramount+ and recently secured renewals for flagship drama Reacher and its spinoff Negaley.
What Happens Next?
Bringing the studios under Cheeks would create the possibility of further consolidation, although no such plan has been confirmed. As a point of comparison, Disney took six years following its acquisition of Fox assets to fully combine 20th Television, ABC Signature and Touchstone Television, completing that process in two stages.
Another open question is whether Warner Bros. Television’s broadcast strategy would change once the studio becomes vertically integrated with CBS for the first time. CBS Studios is already closely aligned with the network’s brand and programming needs, leaving the ultimate division of responsibilities among the three studios to be determined after the transaction closes.