Saying Goodbye to the Old Paramount, Hello to Paramount, a Skydance Corporation

byKPGamingz •
0


Well… here we are.

As of the publication of this article, the long-awaited Paramount/Skydance merger is now complete, becoming Paramount, a Skydance Corporation. It’s a historic day for America. This deal ends decades of control of the Redstone family in the entertainment industry. 

Starting way back in the 1960s until today, a 6-decade span, Sumner Redstone and friends, alongside his daughter Shari, racked up the assets from startup movie studios, to acquiring the newly reconfigured Viacom (the CBS syndie spinoff that just bought MTV), to getting Paramount Pictures after battling with Barry Diller, and getting the historic CBS (and UPN, now The CW) to reunite with Viacom. But since the start of the millennium, the company had always struggled with many things and gotten into many controversies. 

With the many battles between Les Moonves’ CBS and MTV Networks and many economic turbulences leading to the second split (while still being under Sumner’s National Amusements), Paramount Pictures struggling to compete with the likes of Universal, Warner Bros., and now Disney, and the cable networks dwindling in value with the rise of the digital marketplace, the company struggled with keeping promises even well into the 2020s reunited.

But now, we are looking ahead to the new Paramount, without the influences of the old Viacom, the old CBS, and especially without the Redstones. Let’s take a moment and klere limye a (shine a light) on the departing executives of Paramount the old-fashioned way—a roast.

Shari Redstone: The Undesired Regent

The girl who swam her way back to her father’s life. Shari Redstone is undoubtedly one of Paramount’s biggest supporters. Despite her father, Sumner Redstone, and his endowers pushing her away from family business (and a complicated lawsuit afterward with them), his declining health and reconciliation got through with her determination to become heiress of National Amusements, which controls Viacom and CBS.

She tried getting Viacom and CBS back together as early as 2016. Still, Les Moonves declined the offer, citing how Viacom was essentially a falling business and was seeking better offers from Verizon. However, a sexual harassment suit forced him out of CBS, which allowed Shari to sweep the board with her supporters. By 2019, the divorcees of CBS and Viacom were getting married again, with Bob Bakish leading the efforts. Shari looked like a queen ready to lead the company into the future of entertainment.

Yet here we are today, and Shari has been public enemy number one within Paramount since they officially announced the merger. With losing the trust of the CBS News team when forcing oversight into 60 Minutes stories on Trump due to his pending lawsuit, CBS is to end the decades-running Late Show in 2026, citing “financial reasons” the same week she and Trump officially settled the lawsuit, causing speculation. Plus, shareholders feel ripped off from the Skydance merger when Class A shares are being taken and given to the Ellison family, and B shares are seemingly getting less; she’s leaving this company on a sour note.

Bob Bakish: The Disregarded Loyalist

Ah Bob. Previously, the head of international, he earned his way into Shari's heart by promising loyalty and deepening his role by taking Viacom's President and CEO position. And when CBS reunited with the fold, he was immediately tasked with leading it all. All smiles when he rang the bell at Nasdaq alongside Shari and the company’s popular employees and characters.
But then, COVID-19 attacked. 

We all cannot deny that COVID changed the trajectory of every company. But Bakish was seemingly not deterred by any obstacle. He relaunched the CBS All Access service, a niche streaming service catered to CBS viewers, and Star Trek, a blueprint for the FOX One service launching (another streamer, yay!), into Paramount+. Paramount+ repositioned the company as a supersized streamer with the best from all of its brands (minus Yellowstone in the States and formally South Park).

He also tasked a condensed team with practically everyone overseeing everything, which was confusing for most at the company. Brian Robbins, head of Nickelodeon, took over Paramount Pictures after ousting Jim Gianopulos, the previous 20th Century head; Chris McCarthy, head of MTV Entertainment, took over oversight of Showtime after David Nevins' departure; and George Cheeks, head of CBS, took over oversight of BET while it had its leadership and just took over VH1 from MTV.

But when the merger rumors were circulating, his relationship with Shari took a sharp turn, with many decisions like not selling Showtime (which could have gathered $3 billion for the company instead turned into a Paramount+ brand with an even lower reputation compared to HBO), failing to sell BET Media Group to parties like Tyler Perry initially, and being against a Skydance merger. So on April 29, 2025, Bob Bakish announced his departure from the company, and the trio of George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy, and Brian Robbins took over his role as the “Office of the CEO.”

A sad turn from loyalist to loyally disowned by your friend. Talk about traitorship.

Chris McCarthy: The Brand Whispering Nightmare

The MTV2 guy who killed the channel anyway. Chris McCarthy’s time with Paramount traces back to when he was the general manager of MTV2 and transitioned into the head of MTV and VH1 when they were under one division. He’s the guy who endorsed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Guy Code and Girl Code, Love & Hip Hop, and the Jersey Shore franchise. When MTV Studios relaunched as a multiplatform studio, becoming MTV Entertainment Studios, he led the effort to push many shows back into the purview.

We can’t forget his contribution to making Yellowstone the biggest show on basic cable in years. He even signed Taylor Sheridan until 2028 to make more Yellowstone and Yellowstone-adjacent series for Paramount+ in record success. His 101 Studios creates Paramount+’s biggest shows, reaching the Nielsen charts multiple times, some can even say bigger than the Star Trek series on Paramount+.

However, behind the scenes, McCarthy is seen as an ill-spirited leader who does not listen to or respect the employees. Many recently laid-off employees from the MTV Entertainment division had shared their opinions about him online, especially on the Deadline comments about McCarthy and the trio of CEOs.

Let’s also not forget that it was McCarthy who allowed many of what we all see as bad streaming deals from the company, which he helped contribute to. That being a cheap streaming deal for Yellowstone on Peacock and the $500m contract for South Park on HBO Max. Yellowstone’s Peacock deal separated the main series from the now available spin-off series and other Sheridan content on Paramount+. Plus, the many online confusions caused when Yellowstone returned to Paramount Network while 1883 and 1923 also aired on the network and streamed on P+.

For South Park, it caused many delays and instabilities, plus it almost cost Paramount’s future relationship with the creators. After signing a side deal for $900m for 14 “streaming events” and an overall deal extended to 2028, Warner Bros retaliated and filed a lawsuit against Paramount, which is still pending a decision. They almost lost the rights again, with Ellison and Shell declining the initial $1b split rights with HBO Max and $50m settlement and suggesting a 3-year deal for Paramount+, nearly breaking a partnership when the creators hired a lawyer for a potential suit, and possibly losing the streaming rights again. But at last, Paramount and the creators settled on a new 5-year $1.5b deal to move the streaming rights to Paramount+ and returned the series to 10-episode seasons. He leaves on good terms.

Brian Robbins: The Elevated Underperformer

Mr. Director of Norbit himself. A lot can be said about his time at Paramount. Not the best CEO, but not the worst. A brief stint as head of the new Paramount Players, he became the new President of Nickelodeon, succeeding Cyma Zarigami. His trajectory for Nickelodeon (which lost its biggest creator, Dan Schneider, during the rise of the MeToo movement, among others) was high. He started greenlighting many content, including the return of All That, one of his creations at the network in the 90s, the first SpongeBob SquarePants spinoff, and many more game shows. All but the Sponge spinoff, titled Kamp Koral, were gone by 2021 due to the effects of COVID-19 on the economy and the whole industry. 


It was clear that much of his focus shifted more towards Paramount Pictures when he took over in 2021, and the downsides were that live-action at Nick took a big hit. Almost every live-action series under Robbins was no longer in production.


Nickelodeon Animation didn’t seem to grow as much due to the impact of shifting much of the content towards Paramount+. Yet, only Kamp Koral, Dora, and the Transformers show (plus the new TMNT reboot franchise’s series) survived all the original content purges, and most of the shows aired in that period are no longer available to stream on Paramount+. Paramount had a long wait time for cable content to be sent to Paramount+, making their availability worse while the competition adapted. Still, the competition is failing to get the kids and family audience (minus Netflix and, more or less, Disney+ with Bluey). 


As for Paramount Pictures, he leaned more on preestablished IPs like Transformers, Mission Impossible, and Paw Patrol to revitalize the studio. He almost got his way in 2022, with many box office successes such as Scream (5), Jackass Forever, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and, of course, the summer blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, which was co-produced by Skydance.

Though he was responsible for some of its recent failures with Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning (previously meant just to be a two-parter, but was retroactively changed for Final Reckoning to become the final installment), IF, Transformers One, and the recent Smurfs adaptation.


Alongside that, Nickelodeon, like most kids' networks these days, feels more abandoned as kids shift their focus to streaming services and short-form content from TikTok and YouTube, which is causing more kids to have a smaller attention span compared to a decade ago. Parents are also cutting the cord to cable and satellite rapidly, leaving these channels with fewer viewers. Look at Nickelodeon’s schedule today, and you’ll find SpongeBob, Paw Patrol, and licensed movies dominating the schedule. Even the competitors have copied their format in their respective ways, with reruns of concluded shows and films. Robbins’ Nickelodeon feels more automated than when it started.


Now, I don’t hate the guy. He did his job at Paramount Pictures well enough to keep it from imploding. But when he had more tasks and roles, it was clear that most of them had been stressful. He’s barely mentioned for his day-to-day role at Nickelodeon when he’s too busy running a studio and co-running a company. So sad, but so necessary for his mental state. But he’s leaving on good terms.

Honorable Mentions

Tom Ryan

Didn’t say too much, didn’t help when Pluto started losing too much market share in FAST. Overall, he did his job well enough.

Keyes Hill-Edgar

25 years. What a run. He oversaw business planning, operations, and strategy for content developed by the studios and cable networks. Plus, he’s the guy who helped get the South Park deal done and influenced Chris McCarthy to produce Yellowstone. Bravo.

Nina L. Diaz

She oversaw development and production over at the cable networks. Her credits trace back to the 2000s, when she helped launch MTV classics My Super Sweet 16, Cribs, and The Osbournes. An MTV legend indeed.

Liza Burnett Fefferman

She was head of comms for the cable networks. 9 years with Paramount. What can we say about comms people when corporations cut them nowadays?

Mike Ireland

Not much to say for Ireland, considering he joined the movie studio in 2020. But he helped with Top Gun: Maverick, Mission Impossible, and A Quiet Place under his leadership as head of the Motion Picture Group.

Twitter’s Farewell

Looking Forward

We at What’s on Paramount+ welcome the new leadership from Skydance. Ellison has stated that Paramount+ and Pluto TV will utilize the same tech starting in 2026 and will begin to reinvent the cable brands somehow. We won’t see most changes for at least the next few years, and we should all expect more consolidations and such. We hope they continue the mission and motto Sumner Redstone embraced, “content is king.” Long live the Redstones. 


Enjoy the new site!
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KPGamingz

Founder and head of What's on Paramount+, KP writes articles on what's new and upcoming to the Paramount streaming service, Paramount+. He also shares analysis on the current landscape of the entertainment business.

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