With more to come during the Post-WBD merger, Skydance’s executive structure has come to focus before the Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery transaction on Tuesday. According to Deadline, Chair of TV Media George Cheeks, who is one of the senior executives on Paramount CEO David Ellison’s team, will be overseeing the three TV studios: Warner Bros. TV, CBS Studios, and Paramount Television Studios (PTVS— The Dish).
Just like Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg with them overseeing Skydance’s movie studios, Cheeks will do the same with the three studios.
Though he has experience with CBS since 2020, Cheeks will oversee CBS Studios with CBS Studios President David Stapf reporting back to him. He will oversight of Warner Bros. Television and Paramount Television Studios, working with the current Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Television Group and US Networks Channing Dungey and PTVS President Matt Thunell report to Cheeks, too. Thunell does also report to Goldberg even with him and Greenstein handling the movie studios. Some speculation on Dungey that state she reports directly to the CEOs of both companies from her stature as top TV executive and Warner Bros TV output in the industry.
Cheeks will also oversee all linear Paramount networks, including CBS, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and BET. He will oversight cable brands on the WBD side. He is well-known for his creative involvement with Television brands, including being credited in the franchise CBS’ Fire Country and being Vice Chairman of NBCUniversal Content Studios.
The combination would have the three TV studios under future consolidation with CBS as its main supplier. After six years, Disney was able to merge with Fox’s TV studios, including 20th Television, ABC Signature, and Touchstone Television from just two stages in acquiring the company’s assets.
There are still some matters between Warner Bros. Television and PTVS to cover, focusing now on scoping through IP information on other related film studios and the streaming platforms that are main suppliers. Warner Bros. Television has been the largest independent TV studio that produced big shows, including Friends (1994-2004), ER (1994-2009), and The Big Bang Theory (2007-2019). They also developed other hit shows, including Abbott Elementary (2021- ), Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage (2024- ), and Memory of a Killer (2026- ), on broadcast networks like ABC, CBS, and Fox. It is unclear if such broadcast networks will stay the same as WBTV will be vertically integrated on CBS for the first time.
