Let me nip this one in the bud right up front: I’m not David Ellison’s publicist and no, he hasn’t hired me for a project. Lord knows he doesn’t need my help in that regard and today of all days I wouldn’t even try to push the argument. At least he has a positive net worth.
But he does seem to acknowledge he could use a little help with running his newly approved business expansion and just as the ink was drying on the rubber stamping of last week’s settlement that federal judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued yesterday afternoon Ellison superceded that breaking news with one of slightly more–ahem–paramount importance to the task at hand. VARIETY’s Todd Spengler was among the first who leapt into the fray with this:
Ynon Kreiz, who is stepping down as CEO of Mattel after eight years, will join David Ellison’s Paramount – which is expected to close its mega-merger with Warner Bros. Discovery on Oct. 6 – as co-CEO of the new company, Paramount announced.
As chairman and CEO, Ellison will lead all strategy, creative and technology functions. Kreiz, as co-CEO, will oversee the company’s day-to-day operations and integration of the combined businesses. It’s a “pairing that joins complementary skillsets to amplify results,” Paramount said in announcing the appointment Wednesday.
Ellison’s appointment of Kreiz “caps a long-term plan: pursue both Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, then partner with a leading executive of his caliber to integrate, operationalize and manage the businesses as they build one of the most ambitious next-generation media companies in the industry’s history,” according to Paramount’s announcement. One source close to the situation told Variety said that Ellison’s courting of Kreiz has been in the works for months and was “another ace up Ellison’s sleeve.”
Someone who may very well now need to act as a de facto publicist, CNN’s Ramishah Maruf, pointed out a few strong reasons why said source was so bliish:
Kreiz has been chairman and CEO of toymaker Mattel since 2018 and, in that time, expanded the company’s famous IP, such as Hot Wheels, into Hollywood movies. It was all part of his broad strategy to transform Mattel’s image from a toy manufacturer to an entertainment powerhouse.
His crown jewel is undeniably the blonde, gleaming Barbie. Though a Barbie movie had long been discussed, Kreiz told Bloomberg he began focusing on the movie three weeks into joining the company. The “Barbie” movie made history with a $1 billion box office three weeks into opening, and Mattel made over 100 brand deals for the movie, from an insurance commercial to nail polish.
Before joining Mattel, he was chairman and CEO of Maker Studios, a multi-channel network on YouTube that was also acquired by Disney in 2014. He had also been chairman and CEO of Endemol Group, a television production company that created shows like “Big Brother” and “Deal or No Deal”; and he’d been a general partner at Balderton Capital.
All well and good–and Kreiz’s recent results are indeed impressive. But much as I do when it comes to judging politicians, I base my opinions as much as possible on personal experience (or, lacking that, those of at least three unrelated people whom I trust who offer theirs). It’s what I observed first-hand with Kreiz’s first significant media leadership role that has me nodding in agreement with the Wall Street pundits who are singing his–and by association Ellison’s–praises.
Kreiz was a prodigy of Haim Saban–connecting with him after emigrating from Israel to study at UCLA at roughly the time that Haim was advancing from self-described “cartoon schlepper” to children’s TV mogul after fortuitously stumbling upon a weird live-action series called JU RANGERS that featured fully masked heroes that he saw in a Tokyo hotel room that he cleverly surmised could easily–and very cheaply–be dubbed into English with whatever silly dialogue he could coax out of his existing company’s creatives. That allowed him to fill an open morning time slot on the FOX Children’s Network at a price tag only he could meet with what became MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS. You probably know all that happened next. Kreiz certainly does–as was related to me, he was working as a deckhand on Saban’s yacht and listening intensely while he leveraged his newfound stateside success with his company’s global sales efforts. In the mid-90s children’s programming blocks in numerous countries aired on terrestrial networks in prime time. POWER RANGERS was as coveted as BAYWATCH or ER and often outrated them.
And I know that better than most because when I was inherited as part of his absorption of the Family Channel to provide the cable network spoke to the joint venture that became FOX FAMILY WORLDWIDE–and because of my past associations with Saban and FOX–I was given the opportunity to learn international research on the fly and craft sales pieces for Saban International that Kreiz began to repurpose when Haim entrusted him with the task of building a European version of FOX KIDS from scratch. Kreiz used the samr tactics that FOX KIDS had employed to quickly become a superior alternative and destination to traditional affiliates’ Saturday mornings and toy-driven syndicated weekday shows and what we were using to revamp the Family Channel–lots of library product and aggressive promotion. But unlike his domestic counterparts Kreiz was surgically determined, laser-focused and fiscally responsible. At the same time that FOX KIDS was stumbling and ultimately lapped by many of the same shows and executives that launched Kids’ WB FOX KIDS EUROPE was carving out real estate and audience that even Disney never had overseas. Hence even when Saban cashed out Kreiz–and for a spell the FOX KIDS name–remained and thrived, setting him up for all of the future success he achieved.
In the wake of this appointment I’ve read and been messaged quite a number of snarky comments about how and why Ellison made this choice. Was this some sort of quid pro quo for keeping Warner Brothers alive with BARBIE? Was it coincidence that Kreiz was born in Israel? And is Kreiz really being brought in as the terminator to ruthlessly slash and burn the studio so that Ellison doesn’t have that on his conscience?
Perhaps, probably and likely, in that order. Which means I’d urge Mark Ruffalo to redirect his fist-in-the-air X-eets toward Kreiz’ social media going forward. But I’d also counsel him not to expect a like or subscribe. Getting a nod out of Kreiz was the best I was able to accomplish even as a colleague. I suspect he treats adversaries with even more dismissiveness.
There may yet be plenty more reasons to diss Ellison in the weeks ahead. I may yet find a few more of my own to toss onto the pyre. But hey, two days in a row he’s chosen an executive who actually merits a job to be on his team. In this town and in this era, that’s two more than many have to their credit.
Until next time…