George Cheeks Cements Skydance TV Leadership Team Across Studios, Networks, Sports and News

Skydance Co-Chair and Chief Content Officer George Cheeks has locked in his leadership team following the closing of the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Warner Bros. Television Group Head Channing Dungey will continue in her role overseeing the division’s portfolio of scripted, unscripted and animation studios, as well as 50+ cable brands including HGTV, Food Network, TNT, BET and MTV. For cable channels outside the U.S., Channing will report to Cheeks for programming and JB Perrette for operations. Meanwhile, Matt Thunell will continue to oversee Paramount Television Studios, while David Stapf and Amy Reisenbach will continue to lead CBS Studios and CBS Entertainment, respectively. David Berson will lead Skydance’s Global Sports Group, while Tom Cibrowski will continue to oversee operations across CBS News’ broadcast, streaming and digital businesses. Byron Rubin will serve as Skydance TV’s Chief Operating Officer and expand his purview to include oversight of the CBS Televisions Group. He will work closely with the division’s president Jennifer Mitchell, who will report to Cheeks and be a part of the senior leadership team. Lauren Weir will oversee research and programming insights across Skydance TV broadcast, cable and studios, working closely with the division’s creative and marketing leaders in all areas on strategy. She will also continue to oversee her content strategy, scheduling and content acquisitions teams for the Paramount cable networks while the company works through integration planning. Mike Benson will lead marketing across the portfolio, while Chris Ender will oversee all communications and publicity and serve as Skydance TV’s spokesperson. Benson will report to Chief Marketing Officer Rebecca Mall, while Ender will report to Perrette and Chief Communications Officer Melissa Zukerman. Additionally, Skydance Sports Entertainment will be part of Skydance TV Studios Group, with further details to be revealed at a later date. The announcement of the full Skydance TV leadership team comes as Skydance’s President and COO Jesse Sisgold has exited the company and will serve as a senior C-suite advisor at RedBird Capital Partners. It also comes after Skydance Chief Financial Officer Dennis Cinelli finalized the company’s finance leadership and revealed that Warner Bros. Discovery’s Treasury EVP Fraser Woodford would stay on through the end of March to transition work to Skydance Corporate Finance & Treasury EVP Kevin Creighton and help find his successor. More to come…