After Bob Bakish Exit From Paramount, Trio Of Senior Exec Successors Look To Reassure Wall Street, Teasing A New Strategic Plan For The Ailing Media Giant

George Cheeks, Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy, the Paramount Global executives chosen to occupy the Office of the CEO as a replacement for the departing Bob Bakish, sought to reassure Wall Street on Monday that they have a plan.

The remarks, which took up just two minutes at the start of Paramount’s first-quarter earnings call, featured short comments from each exec, with the trio being played off by the Mission: Impossible theme. Cheeks began by thanking Bakish for his leadership.

“Paramount Global has the greatest content in the world,” he continued. “We’ve got incredible assets at this company.”

Equally as important, McCarthy said, is the fact that the three execs stepping in for Bakish are well-acquainted with each other. “We’re true partners,” he said, with a “deep respect for each other.”

The company is finalizing a long-term strategic plan, McCarthy added, built on three pillars: optimizing hit content, maximizing the balance sheet and refining the company’s streaming strategy.

Robbins said the three have been “collaborating for years,” and has an estimable record of creating hit TV and film titles, “which is the core” of Paramount. “We will bring all of that to bear as we chart a course forward for our company. We look forward to coming back to you in short order to share our plan and discuss it all in detail at that time.”

Robbins is president & CEO of Paramount Pictures & Nickelodeon and chief content officer, Movies and Kids & Family, Paramount+; Cheeks is president-CEO of CBS, and chief content officer, News and Sports, Paramount+; McCarthy is President & CEO, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks.

The remarks, which were followed by more finance-focused comments by CFO Naveen Chopra, were not followed by the traditional question-and-answer period with analysts. The call came minutes after the company reported a mixed bag of financial results for the first quarter and also confirmed the exit of Bakish as CEO.

Bakish fell out of favor with Paramount’s controlling shareholder after a long period in the 2010s when she championed him as first Viacom CEO and then chief exec of ViacomCBS, now Paramount. Scrutiny of Bakish’s strategic acumen from within as well as in the investment community has been heightened as the company conducts exclusive merger talks with Skydance. David Ellison’s company sweetened its offer for Paramount after an outcry from investors who could have been diluted under previous proposals.

MORE to come …