‘Fear and Fire’: Paramount’s Chaos Is Spooking Showrunners

New 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton may think broadcast is “an ice cube that is melting,” a sentiment relayed along other disparaging comments about linear TV. But inside Paramount, and particularly CBS, showrunners see something else: one of the last and best reliable engines of creative employment — now rattled by Bari Weiss’ tumultuous CBS News overhaul and David Ellison’s Trump-friendly posture — that has many worried, watching and worse, choosing not to pitch the long-running most successful broadcast network on air.

The irony is hard to miss. Following the breakout success of The Pitt and such Netflix “gourmet cheeseburgers” as The Night Agent and The Diplomat, platforms are leaning ever further into the old broadcast model — trying to do CBS better than CBS can — with fast-turnaround, broadly appealing, repeatable shows that keep audiences coming back. Even broadcast is leaning more into its broadcast model as the number of series on air and in development actually keeps growing. And showrunners still consider landing a show on broadcast the gold standard: a chance at long-term job stability and financial success.

“Why are we dealing with someone so dismissive of something that so many care about and want to improve?” one Paramount-based showrunner tells me of the mood among their peers following Bilton’s “uncomfortable” comments. “I think the kerfuffle at 60 Minutes is disparaging what a lot of showrunners do and are committed to doing in linear, and it’s not a good look.”

While broadcast news and entertainment divisions have traditionally followed separate missions and masters, the disruption inside Paramount — and across Hollywood — is breaking all kinds of industry protocols as CBS News’ traditional boundaries of church-and-state fall away. At least one showrunner has already expressed concerns about Weiss’ moves to senior executives at CBS, I’m told, including network entertainment president Amy Reisenbach and her boss, TV media chair George Cheeks. Reisenbach, too, has quietly raised questions about how the damage at 60 Minutes is impacting CBS’ overall brand as Ellison — pulling every lever to smooth his company’s planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — reinvents Paramount to be more aligned with what many see as Trump-friendly values.

I spoke with 10 showrunners to hear their thoughts about doing business at Paramount in the wake of the changes rattling 60 Minutes and all of Paramount. Ellison’s decision to install The Free Press’ Weiss as editor-in-chief at CBS News — and her move to hire Bilton, a former New York Times tech columnist and Vanity Fair writer with no TV experience, as executive producer — have created what one showrunner calls a “scary situation” for creatives at the company.

Today, you’ll learn about the tumult among writers and showrunners looking at the new Paramount, and what the massive changes there — and the ones still to come — mean for the future.

Read on for:  

• Why some showrunners are starting to steer clear of the Paramount “brand”
• What Nick Bilton gets wrong about linear TV — and how his misconceptions are rippling beyond the newsroom
• How showrunners with business at Paramount are operating now, and what they expect post-merger
• The career-risk calculation for younger writers who can’t afford to boycott a buyer
• The fear of political meddling, programming mandates and invisible red lines
• How trusted CBS execs are keeping showrunners calm — for now
• The merger dread: “What are you getting into?”