{"id":916563,"date":"2026-10-05T03:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T03:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916563\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T03:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T03:56:10","slug":"channing-dungey-poised-for-expanded-cable-role-post-merger-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916563\/","title":{"rendered":"Channing Dungey Poised For Expanded Cable Role Post-Merger (Exclusive)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: In addition to Casey Bloys and George Cheeks<\/a>, the television\/streaming structure of the combined Paramount<\/a>\u2013Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a>, recently named Skydance<\/a>, would include expanded responsibilities for Channing Dungey<\/a> who would be taking over the Paramount cable networks, I hear.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Deadline revealed on Friday<\/a>, Paramount\u2019s Chair of TV Media Cheeks, who currently oversees CBS Studios, is poised to add oversight of Warner Bros Television and Paramount Television Studios, with Dungey, Chairman and CEO, Warner Bros Television Group and US Networks, and PTVS President Matt Thunell both reporting to him alongside CBS Studios President David Stapf.<\/p>\n

\n\tContinuing the streamlining trend of Skydance<\/a> putting the combined Paramount and WBD TV studios under Cheeks, film studios under Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg and streamers (HBO Max and Paramount+) under Bloys, the company would be doing the same for the large array of cable networks it will own under Dungey, who also will continue to run the Warner Bros. TV Group, sources said.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe would be adding oversight of the Paramount cable nets, which currently report to Cheeks, including the \u201ccore four,\u201d MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET, as well as VH1, Paramount Network, TV Land, CMT, Pop TV, and Logo TV.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat would be in addition to her current cable portfolio as head of US Networks, which features WBD\u2019s linear TV 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 be reporting to Cheeks on both the studio and cable network side. <\/p>\n

\n\tReps for Paramount and Warner Bros. TV declined comment. <\/p>\n

\n\tWith the move, Cheeks, whose domain is expanding to include two more TV studios and WBD\u2019s cable portfolio as he takes charge of the combined company\u2019s TV Studios and linear networks, including CBS and cable, is delegating day-to-day oversight of the cable brands, to Dungey, a highly respected veteran TV executive who had started executing her strategy for the WBD cable nets since adding the responsibility to her original job of running the Warner Bros. television studio almost two years ago. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe new studio structure reaffirms Paramount CEO David Ellison\u2019s faith in former Skydance TV President Thunell who is put on the same level with two of the most decorated TV executives in the business who have decades of experience and oversee large portfolios in Channing and Stapf. Under the setup, Channing and Thunell, whose units both focus on development and production for streaming, are expected to work closely together.<\/p>\n

\n\tSkydance is poised to unveil its official executive structure early next week, tied to Paramount\u2019s acquisition of WBD closing Oct. 6.<\/p>\n

\n\tDungey added oversight of Warner Bros. Discovery\u2019s basic cable networks at the end of 2024. She has led the unit through a period of uncertainty as WBD announced a plan to spin off its linear networks before Paramount emerged as a buyer for the entire portfolio. With her at the US Networks helm, Shark Week 2026 garnered its biggest ratings growth in over a decade, Puppy Bowl delivered its largest audience in eight years, Food Network achieved its first quarter of ratings growth in five years (in Q1 2026), and HGTV posted its strongest year-over-year gains this year in nearly two decades. <\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the programming synergies between the cable networks and WBTV under Dungey are a Bachelor Mansion crossover with HGTV and The Pitt season 1 getting a run on TNT.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe large size of Paramount and WBD\u2019s combined cable network footprint was a main anti-trust concern in the lawsuit filed by the 12 state attorneys general, with its settlement stipulating that \u201cParamount and Warner Brothers are required to continue negotiating their cable packages separately.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tFailure to comply would require Skydance to divest several Paramount brands<\/a>, including BET (BET, BET Gospel, BET Her, BET Hip-Hop, BET Jams, and BET Soul), VH1, Comedy Central, Smithsonian, Destination America, and Science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: In addition to Casey Bloys and George Cheeks, the television\/streaming structure of the combined Paramount\u2013Warner Bros. Discovery,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,484238,134,484239,14627,17126,427,6142],"class_list":["post-916563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-channing-dungey","tag-entertainment","tag-george-cheeks","tag-paramount","tag-skydance","tag-tv","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}