The conglomerate, overseen by CEO Bob Bakish, has promoted David Nevins, Nicole Clemens, Chris McCarthy, Brian Robbins and Tanya Giles, with each exec taking on new responsibilities at streamer Paramount+.
It’s unclear if there will be any layoffs as part of the reorganization, as was the case when Disney, WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal rejiggered their corporate ranks last year.
Nevins, who was chief creative officer at CBS and CEO at premium cabler Showtime, will relinquish his role with the broadcast network and now serve as chief content officer of scripted originals for Paramount+.
Clemens, a former agent, manager and FX executive, had been rumored to be adding Paramount+ originals to her purview after Julie McNamara departed the streamer formerly known as CBS All Access .
As part of the realignment, Kelly Day — who has been president of streaming and COO at ViacomCBS Networks International, will work with Giles and the content leaders on the global content slate for the streamer.
“The strong launch and early months of Paramount+ have demonstrated the power and potential of our platform, as well as audiences’ appetite for a broad and diverse array of content, all in one place,” Bakish said in a release Wednesday.
McCarthy had served as president of ViacomCBS’ entertainment and youth brands, which included oversight of Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo, TV Land and Paramount Network.
Rounding out the moves is Giles, who had served as GM of Paramount Network, TV Land, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1 and Logo under McCarthy.
“Tanya is a stellar media executive who brings a deep familiarity with our brands and audiences, as well as an unmatched talent for harnessing data to make high-impact programming decisions,” Ryan said.
The ViacomCBS structure means the streamer will now be overseen by a content group rather than a dedicated executive as ViacomCBS looks to further grow the SVOD service to better represent its well-known brands.
Sources say Nevins had been frustrated after he was passed over for the CEO job at CBS Entertainment Group that ultimately went to Cheeks early last year.
What remains to be seen is if ViacomCBS will combine its multiple streamers — Showtime’s OTT offering, BET+ and Paramount+ as well as free streamer Pluto TV — into one single offering.
Since taking over the studio, which has been a top content supplier to Paramount+ while also serving as an arms dealer to third-party outlets, Clemens has overseen a roster of originals including 13 Reasons Why, Defending Jacob, Home Before Dark and Looking for Alaska.
After overseeing VH1’s ratings turnaround, he has continued to add oversight of multiple networks since and also launched in-house studios to focus on mining IP at MTV and Comedy Central.
During his tenure, he has mined Nick’s vault of IP with a SpongeBob spinoff, The Patrick Star Show, a new Rugrats, the iCarly revival, and films set in the Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra worlds, among others.
Nevins, McCarthy and Robbins will all report to Bakish; Giles will shift from reporting to McCarthy to Ryan, the former CEO of Pluto TV who in October was tapped as CEO of ViacomCBS Streaming.
Following a year of massive layoffs and restructuring, big media companies like Disney, WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal largely abandoned the decades-old structure to prioritize their in-house streamers, Disney+, HBO Max and Peacock, respectively, as linear viewing continues to erode and as companies bulk up to compete with the likes of Netflix and Amazon, among others.
The ViacomCBS reorg is the latest move at the company under Bakish’s purview.