I’ve arguably not been all that fair to second generation media scions–particularly when they fall far short of the standards their parents set for the businesses they were gifted. I sometimes forget that in many cases where I’ve personally dealt with such folks they’ve privately admitted that they are harder on themselves than any outside observer ever could be because whether their father (sorry, more often than not it’s a daddy thing) has actually instilled that pressure and self-doubt or if those demons arise internally they have challenges which the rest of us can only speculate about.
I honestly have no idea what the actual dynamic between David and Larry Ellison is, and I’ve admittedly been extra hard on the Prodigal Son. Maybe not quite as hard as political activists, California union leaders and self-ascribed champions of free speech have been of late but I’ve certainly done my fair share of snarking. When it comes to who they break bread and/or matzo with and why, that’s admittedly a more personal and triggering subject and I’ll allow to many of you far more than it is to me. But if you can for a moment let’s strictly focus on what David is doing in the wake of last week’s decision–you can continue to call it caving if you must–that has awarded him stewardship of Parabrothers, Warnermount or whatever you may choose to nickname the Frankenstudio that at least for a while will still be shooting content in this state. Yesterday we saw two pretty significant signs that he may just be capable of making responsible choices.
The one that has been made is the one that was widely reported yesterday afternoon that took both Nellie Andreeva AND Peter White to author for DEADLINE:
One of the biggest executive suite questions about Paramount following its pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — who will lead streaming — has been answered. Cindy Holland is leaving Paramount Skydance where she was Chair of Direct-To-Consumer having previously served as an advisor to Skydance CEO David Ellison. Her last day is today. Holland announced her departure in a company memo(.)
“Cindy is one of the most exceptional executives in our industry — a force of nature whose impact on Paramount over the past year has been significant,” Paramount CEO Ellison said. “Under her leadership, P+ reached new heights, Pluto TV underwent its most significant transformation in a decade, and we strengthened our content and sports portfolio – all while the business exceeded the ambitious goals we set. Just as importantly, she built an exceptional team and a strong foundation for the future. Cindy has been a trusted partner to me and so many others, and I couldn’t be more grateful for her leadership, her relentless drive and everything she’s done for our company.”
Which means the winner of this round of THE VOICE is apparently HBO honcho Casey Bloys, who many pundits feared would be kicked to the curb in a manner akin to how an awful lot of top executives are when they are on the buyee side of M&A. But it is no secret that Ellison, who if nothing else has been playing creative while running Skydance is enamored and indeed envious of the impressive portfolio of award-winning fare that been ordered and nurtered under his wing–even with all of the disruptions and ineptness of top management like John Stankey and David Zaslav looming over him in the process. And unlike Holland, he’s done the lion’s share of that in THIS decade.
No one–certainly not I–questions the impact that Holland made during her days at Netflix. Indeed, there would have been no streaming business for Paramount and/or Warner Brothers to pursue separately or together without the groundbreaking choices Holland and company made. But it’s impossible to summarily dismiss the words “and company” when specifically discussing Holland. She had a lot of help–and certainly Ted Sarandos would be the first to remind you of that–when it came to which shows got made and the benefits normally ascribed to well-heeled first movers. She also made many of those decisions in a far less competitive landscape for talent and projects than the land mines that Bloys has been forced to play with since he took over stewardship of a legacy brand whose upper management was doing everything possibly to screw up brand-wise and reputation-wise with those in such demand. And that’s the kind of landscape that someone being charged with trying to turn around an ocean liner in a creek–that’s what $80 billion of debt and counting is best analogized to–is navigating in.
The mysterious but astute media blogger Custommapposter summed up Holland’s real value as being more akin to a mercenary than a savior:
(T)op-tier executive talent is almost nomadic now. People like Holland don’t just fade away; they function as strategic fixers who drop into multi-billion-dollar flashpoints, stabilize the foundation, and then hand over the reins when the corporate DNA shifts. We often look at these transitions as personal rejections or failures, but in reality, they are mechanical adjustments in a machine that requires a very specific type of operator for a very specific phase of growth.
Coming in to architect the WBD integration strategy while simultaneously revamping Pluto TV and pushing Paramount+ toward female-forward dramas is no small feat. In barely a year, she helped steer the ship through choppy waters, proving that her foundational playbook from her Netflix days still works. Yet, in a marriage with Warner Bros. Discovery, the cultural gravity of HBO is simply too heavy to ignore. Opting for Bloys means prioritizing a prestige brand identity over a pure subscriber-scaling blitz.
While it might be unfair to judge Holland’s rather brief Paramount tenure on the same KPIs as Bloys’, letting Taylor Sheridan take his ball to Universal at a time when it was impossible to generate anything capable of impacting her new direction quickly enough–while also signing off on a major commitment to UFC –could not have helped her case one iota. In a different time, Holland might have been given the time and patience to see her vision through–much as the sich was with 2010s Netflix. But in this world that’s practically a lifetime ago. Ellison had a hard choice to make, and I’d contend he made the right one.
And if one is to believe the rampant rumors that were erupting at roughly the same point yesterday afternoon, he may actually be on his way to course-correcting one of his more noisy and indeed choices. What began as a trickle from an incendiary site late Monday had built up enough credibility and momentum for TV INSIDER’s Erin Maxwell to drop this:
Could Bari Weiss‘ time at CBS be coming to an end after the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger? That’s the question reportedly being asked inside the industry as 60 Minutes struggles in the ratings following a season of major changes at the long-running newsmagazine. According to Radar Online, Weiss’ future at CBS News could be in question after another underwhelming week of ratings for 60 Minutes.
According to Radar, the second episode of 60 Minutes, featuring Patrick Clancy, the ex-husband of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of filicide, averaged 6.77 million viewers, making it the third-smallest audience for the second episode of a 60 Minutes season in the past 25 years. This follows the season premiere of the series, which featured an interview with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and drew 7.94 million viewers, down 21% from last year’s premiere. The episode also fell 33% among adults 25-54.
At this time, there’s no indication that a decision has been made about Weiss’ future, and the report remains unsubstantiated.
True, and considering that the same site had been reporting last fall that Weiss was soon going to evoke the memory of Barbara Walters by becoming the yin to Whoopi Goldberg’s yang I can’t quite take this one to the bank just yet. But this did emerge during an off week (the VMA awards aired Sunday night) which in the sports world is usually when struggling football coaches tend to be dealt with. And while some of her interview choices frequently lie, numbers don’t. It’s also impossible to dispute the Deep Throat-ish asides which RADAR’s Daniel Guru gleefully shared in the actual piece that Maxwell homogenized:
“60 Minutes used to be the most-watched news show in television and now it’s being outranked by weekday editions of World News Tonight,” the insider continued. “It’s one thing to deliver a dip in ratings and it’s another to totally submarine the most valuable brand in news.”…”Everyone is wondering how soon it will take the Ellisons to pull the plug once the merger goes through,” one industry insider told Radar. “CBS is desperately trying to spin these abysmal launch numbers as a win when the entire industry is laughing at yet the third failure on Bari’s record.”
Well, at least the Ellisons believe that the merger has gone through. And if the right tough call on someone like Cindy Ellison can be made, can one on ol’ Bari-um Enema be far behind?
You’re on a roll, Nepobaby. Let’s see if we can keep this streak going.
Until next time…