It’s Official – Bob Bakish Is Out At Paramount Global, Trio Of Division Heads Form New Office Of The CEO
29.04.2024 - 20:03
/ deadline.com
Paramount Global‘s CEO Bob Bakish is out. The executive who has been a presence at several iterations of the company since 1997 will exit, effective immediately. A triumvirate of division heads — Brian Robbins, George Cheeks and Chris McCarthy — will step in to lead the company for now in a new office of the CEO.
Robbins is president & CEO of Paramount Pictures & Nickelodeon and chief content officer, Movies and Kids & Family, Paramount+; Cheeks is president-CEO of CBS, and chief content officer, News and Sports, Paramount+; McCarthy is President & CEO, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks.
It’s a drama-filled, and fluid, situation as Shari Redstone is in late-stage negotiations to sell her controlling stake in Paramount to David Ellison’s Skydance Media. Paramount is also set to report earnings.
Redstone and Bakish have been allies for years and in 2016 she backed him as chief executive of a standalone Viacom, then as head of a combined ViacomCBS when the sister companies merged for the second time in 2019. He previously had a strong decade-long run overseeing Viacom’s international business. But tensions between the two have been rising.
At a complicated time in the media industry and an uncertain moment for the company, his departure, which had been confirmed by sources over the weekend, had Paramount executives and staff on edge at events in Washington, D.C. and LA Saturday.
Deadline hears that Redstone felt Bakish was the right CEO at the right time for a combined company, renamed Paramount Global in 2022. Among other moves, he oversaw the acquisition of Pluto TV, and launched Paramount+. But offers to buy Showtime were rebuffed and the company appeared to bungled a sale of BET as