CBS chief George Cheeks has said the broadcaster is maintaining a “fluid and active” approach in putting together its schedule for fall programming in the second month of the writers’ strike.
The executive, who took up his new position at CBS just weeks before the pandemic hit in March 2020, said the streamers series model poses “serious challenges” to writers that the entire industry will have to “invent” in the long run .
Cheeks spoke as part of an extended keynote session at the Banff World Media Festival in Alberta, Canada, where Paramount Global was the most prominent studio on site.
CBS unveiled its fall schedule on May 10 — just over a week after the strike action kicked off — though it’s likely to look a little different given the writers’ strike and a potential actor’s strike on the horizon. Variety understands that the Eye has prepared contingency plans that stretch through the fall, but stop before January.
“The preliminary agreement with the DGA deal was helpful; let’s see what happens with SAG,” Cheeks said Tuesday. “I would just say that unlike broadcast where that series model is tight and works really well for our creative partners, I think the way the streaming series model has evolved has created serious challenges for creative partners that we have to to sort. .”
Cheeks also touched on the “significant challenges” facing US media companies. “More than a year ago it was ‘figure out your streaming, build your [subscriber acquisition] at all costs, profit be damned.” That was pretty much the mandate. And then suddenly it became the opposite. Now it’s ‘how fast can you become profitable?’ And if you are already profitable, how do you increase that profitability? It forces us all to step back and really rationalize our content spending.”
Cheeks said the climate has also forced streamers to recalibrate their exclusivity model and be more open to windowing — a strategy that could benefit writers, whom the director called “creative partners.”
“The only positive thing is I really think this will help us with our creative partners because one of the big issues they’re complaining about is residual streaming,” said Cheeks. “But I think the more we don’t lock the shows to one platform, [the more we] actually spend more revenue on the studios and get more residuals for our partners.
Asked about the differing positions of studios and streamers on the AMPTP side, and whether the old studios would ever “cut” Netflix, Prime Video and Apple, Cheeks laughed before replying diplomatically: “The purpose of the AMPTP is that we operate as a collective unity on this… I mean, there are challenging issues – we’re not all positioned exactly the same way – but I’m still hopeful that we’ll find compromises, this is existential for all of us, for the studios And the creative partners. We need to figure this out.”
Elsewhere in the session, Cheeks revealed that CBS has extended Stephen Colbert’s contract for another three years, through 2026: “They’re absolutely crushing it,” said Cheeks of the “Late Show” team. “It’s a great, cohesive group firing on all cylinders.”
Meanwhile, the executive also laid out his strategy for replacing “The Late Late Show with James Corden” with a resurrected Comedy Central format called “@Midnight,” which Cheeks officially confirmed.
“The 12:30 slot is ripe for reinvention. Not many people are watching at that hour, you really have to think about what the real cross-platform version is? What we ended up doing is primarily Funny or Die and Stephen Colbert, so the auspices couldn’t be better. But when we sat down and talked about it, we were talking about “@Midnight,” and it was kind of an irreverent comedy game show with stand-up comics and celebrities as guests. To me, it has a really nice feel that comes from Colbert.
The “only reason” the show hasn’t been officially announced is because Cheeks wanted to secure a lead writer and showrunner, but couldn’t close the deals before the writers struck. “I still believe that when the strike is over, they can come back,” he said without disclosing any names.
Cheeks manages all of the CBS-branded assets within Paramount Global, including CBS Television Network, which includes CBS Entertainment, CBS News and CBS Sports, as well as CBS Studios, CBS Stations, CBS Media Ventures and CBS-branded digital assets. His global remit also includes expanding CBS News and CBS Sports content to Paramount+, as well as responsibility for BET, Paramount Television Studios and the company’s free-to-air networks in the UK, Australia, Argentina and Chile.