Paramount-Warners: 3 Exec Showdowns About to Explode

In the nearly 10 months that David Ellison has owned Paramount, the executive has made hiring decisions that have drawn acclaim (see Cindy Holland as chair of direct to consumer) and installed others who have faced widespread backlash — Bari Weiss as editor in chief at CBS News, where Scott Pelley was fired for saying on Monday that Weiss was “murdering 60 Minutes.”

Now, as the aspiring media mogul navigates — maybe loves? — the turbulence surrounding 60 Minutes, he’ll also soon face major leadership decisions around CNN, HBO and Warner Bros. Television (provided his $111 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery clears regulatory approvals).  

Paramount Skydance is still targeting a third-quarter close for the deal that would see the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison gain control of WBD’s TV and film studios, HBO and streamer HBO Max, CNN and a plethora of linear cable networks. Combined with Paramount’s current assets, it would create an org chart from hell that includes three TV studios, two film studios and a pair of streaming services, among scores of other redundancies (Ellison has identified $6 billion in cost savings).

Currently, Paramount is contending with growing resistance and a possible antitrust lawsuit from California Attorney General Rob Bonta and his fellow state attorneys general. Ellison, cozy with President Donald Trump, most recently met with officials at the Department of Justice as he looks to secure government approval for a merger that would be both saddled with $79 billion in debt — an amount that has led Wall Street to sour on the deal, and foreign interests from its backers.

As the third quarter draws near, sources tell me Ellison is playing things close to the vest when it comes to his plans for top Warner Bros. Discovery executives including Casey Bloys, who oversees HBO and streamer HBO Max; and Warner Bros. Television Group CEO Channing Dungey, whose remit also includes such WBD linear assets as TNT and Discovery Channel.

But it’s clear, some major C-suite shakeups of the kind this industry hasn’t seen in a while are about to hit.

Amid the uncertainty, I dialed up 10 industry veterans — a mix of agents, managers, executives and creatives — to hear their thoughts (and hopes) about how Ellison could manage the keys to a major kingdom and the fates of some very high-profile subjects in his hands.

Here’s what’s at stake and where the battle lines will be drawn, and what insiders told me:

• The three top exec showdowns about to happen
• Who’s best equipped to run the combined companies’ mega-streamer: Bloys or Holland
• What Bloys has signaled about his ambitions (and bets on whether he’ll want to make “family-friendly shit”)
• Holland’s advantage in a “tech-bro world”
• Studio stewards: how three (Skydance, CBS and Warner Bros. TV) will become one, why it’s inevitable and who will lead
• How George Cheeks’ role could evolve, and which other execs could see their career expire with their contract
• What’s the strategy for the linear networks (“Divest them, shut them down, spin them off”)

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Streaming: Bloys vs. Holland