TV in 3: Where’s Jeff Shell?; The New Showrunner Arms Race

Plus: ‘Wisecrack’ pod scoop out of Universal

HEAT IS ON From left: Jeff Shell, Edd Hedges and Cindy Holland. (The Ankler illustration; image credits below)

Today, I’ve got a look at one big burning question that I omitted from my opus about Paramount-WBD earlier this week: Where in the world is Paramount president Jeff Shell? Plus, my take on some early signs that a new battle for streaming supremacy has already begun and an exclusive scoop about an award-winning podcast being adapted for television.

Let’s get into it.

Shell Game

OUT OF SIGHT Paramount Skydance president Jeff Shell, at the Jan. 13 launch of Fanatics Studios, has been seen at the office but not at any public events for the company in recent weeks. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Fanatics)

Where’s Jeff Shell?

That question became louder this week after Paramount Skydance’s virtual breakfast with Wall Street analysts on March 2 was led by CEO David Ellison, COO Andy Gordon and CFO Dennis Cinelli. Shell, the president earlier positioned as the operational head of the entire company, was MIA, and his absence was not addressed. On a recent podcast RedBird honcho and Paramount Skydance board member Gerry Cardinale said only, “I’ve got nothing to say about that right now. I have a tremendous amount of love and respect for Jeff, he’s very talented. We gotta look into this internally and we’ve got to leave this to the senior management team.”

Paramount declined comment.

However…