Channing Dungey is in line to run the cable networks of both Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery once the two companies merge, according to Deadline’s reporting on the new corporate structure.
Dungey, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Television Group and US Networks, would add Paramount’s channels to the WBD portfolio she has supervised for almost two years. Those include MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET, the group’s “core four,” along with VH1, Paramount Network, TV Land, CMT, Pop TV and Logo. She would report to George Cheeks, Paramount’s chair of TV media.
Cheeks is gaining ground himself. He would take charge of the combined company’s three television studios and its linear networks, CBS included, and would pass day-to-day cable management to Dungey. She already runs TBS, TNT, truTV, Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Cartoon Network and other WBD brands.
The merged company is expected to operate as Skydance, a name CEO David Ellison announced on X Friday. The $110 billion deal is set to close Tuesday, after a year-long pursuit and a two-month delay caused by antitrust suits from 12 state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America.
Cable bulk was a central worry in the states’ case. Their settlement requires Paramount and Warner Bros. to keep negotiating cable packages with distributors separately, which limits how closely the two sets of channels can be bundled. Dungey’s oversight of both lineups would still put them under one executive on the programming side.
She comes to the job with a recent record to point to. Under her, Shark Week 2026 posted its largest ratings growth in more than a decade, Puppy Bowl drew its biggest audience in eight years, and HGTV recorded its strongest year-over-year gains in nearly two decades. Food Network logged its first quarter of ratings growth in five years.
Dungey would work closely with Matt Thunell, president of Paramount Television Studios, since both lead units focused on development and production for streaming. She is also tied into a programming exchange with the cable group, which includes a Bachelor mansion crossover with HGTV and a TNT run for the first season of The Pitt.
Skydance is expected to announce its full executive structure early next week.
