EXCLUSIVE: In addition to Casey Bloys and George Cheeks, the television/streaming structure of the combined Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery group, recently named Skydance, would include expanded responsibilities for Channing Dungey taking over the Paramount cable networks, I’ve heard.
As Deadline revealed Friday, Cheeks, Paramount’s president of television media who currently oversees CBS Studios, is set to add oversight of Warner Bros. Television and Paramount Television Studios, with Dungey, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Television Group and U.S. Networks, and PTVS president Matt Thunell both reporting to him alongside CBS Studios president David Stapf.
Continuing Skydance’s trend of streamlining by placing the combined Paramount and WBD television studios under Cheeks, the movie studios under Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg and the streamers (HBO Max and Paramount+) under Bloys, the company would do the same for the wide range of cable networks it will own under Dungey, who will also continue to run the Warner Bros TV group, sources said.
It would add oversight of the Paramount cable networks, which currently fall under Cheeks, including the “big four” — MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET — as well as VH1, Paramount Network, TV Land, CMT, Pop TV and Logo TV.
This would add to his current cable portfolio as head of U.S. networks, which includes WBD’s linear television brands including Discovery Channel, Food Network, HGTV, Investigation Discovery, TLC, Adult Swim, Animal Planet, Cartoon Network, HLN, OWN, TBS, TNT, Travel Channel, truTV and Turner Classic Movies. Channing would report to Cheeks on the studio and cable network side.
Representatives for Paramount and Warner Bros TV declined to comment.
With the move, Cheeks, whose purview expands to include two more television studios and WBD’s cable portfolio as it takes charge of the combined company’s television studios and linear networks, including CBS and cable, delegates day-to-day oversight of the cable brands to Dungey, a highly respected veteran television executive who had begun executing her strategy for WBD’s cable networks since she added responsibility to her original job running the television studio from Warner Bros almost two years ago.
The studio’s new structure reaffirms Paramount CEO David Ellison’s confidence in former Skydance TV president Thunell, who is put on the same level as two of the industry’s most decorated TV executives, who have decades of experience and oversee major portfolios at Dungey and Stapf. Under this setup, Dungey and Thunell, whose units both focus on development and production for streaming, are expected to work closely together.
Skydance is set to unveil its official executive structure early next week, tied to Paramount’s acquisition of WBD on Tuesday.
Dungey added oversight of Warner Bros. Discovery’s core cable networks in late 2024. She led the unit through a period of uncertainty when WBD announced a plan to spin off its linear networks before Paramount became a buyer for the entire portfolio. With her at the helm of U.S. networks, Shark Week 2026 saw its strongest viewership growth in over a decade, Puppy Bowl achieved its largest viewership in eight years, Food Network achieved its first quarter of viewership growth in five years (in the first quarter of 2026), and HGTV this year posted its strongest year-over-year gains in nearly two decades.
Among the programming synergies between the cable networks and WBTV under Dungey are a Bachelor Mansion crossover with HGTV and The Pitt season 1 airs on TNT.
The large size of Paramount and WBD’s combined cable network footprint was a key antitrust concern in the lawsuit filed by 12 state attorneys general, with a settlement stating that “Paramount and Warner Brothers are required to continue to negotiate their cable offerings separately.”
Failure to comply would require Skydance to divest several Paramount brands, including BET (BET, BET Gospel, BET Her, BET Hip-Hop, BET Jams and BET Soul), VH1, Comedy Central, Smithsonian, Destination America and Science.
Gn entert
