“Obviously, there’s been a lot of noise around our company. George handles all of that noise and allows people to stay focused on the task at hand. He’s there when and how we want him to be.”

— Dave Berson, President and CEO, CBS Sports

By Paige Albiniak

If you were caught in a hurricane — and many working at Paramount Global during its tumultuous merger with Skydance Media have probably felt that way recently — there would probably be no better person with whom to sit in the eye than Paramount chair, TV Media George Cheeks, one of this year’s B+C Hall of Fame inductees.

“In a business where no one knows anything, if we all really knew as much as we purport to know, there would be no failure,” Pearlena Igbokwe, chairman, Universal Studio Group, said. Igbokwe first met Cheeks when both were students at Yale University. “George has always been a great student. He understands the importance of learning and he has a large grasp on all of the details of our business.”
Cheeks launched his entertainment law career in 1992. In 1998, he joined MTV Networks as senior counsel and began negotiating his way up, eventually becoming executive VP of business affairs and general counsel at Viacom Music and Entertainment Groups as well as head of standards and practices for Viacom Media Networks.

“Every time I would tell a mentor what I wanted to do, they would say, ‘You are now viewed as an attorney, no one will believe you have creative chops.’ At first, it was demoralizing, but then it became a challenge.”

— George Cheeks

From Lawyer to Leader He moved to NBC in 2012 as executive VP, business operations, NBC Entertainment and Universal Television. It was at NBC that Cheeks began to realize his true goal: to become an entertainment leader rather than an entertainment lawyer. “I have always known since I was a kid that this is what I wanted to do,” Cheeks said. “When I got into the business, I was lucky to get an entertainment law job. Every time I would tell a mentor what I wanted to do, they would say, ‘You are now viewed as an attorney, no one will believe you have creative chops.’ At first, it was demoralizing, but then it became a challenge.” When he got to NBC, he met the legendary Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, and that became an inflection point. After working with Cheeks, Michaels went to then-NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke and endorsed him to run NBC’s late-night department. From there, Cheeks’ rise was steep. From 2014-15, he served as president, business operations and late night programming, NBC Entertainment. From 2015-18, he continued to oversee late night while also working as co-president, Universal Cable Productions & Wilshire Studios. And then in 2018, he landed his dream job: co-chairman, NBC Entertainment, alongside Paul Telegdy. That job did not last long, however, as Burke prepared to retire and pass the torch to Jeff Shell. In 2019, Cheeks was promoted out of that job and named vice chairman of NBCUniversal Content Studios.

Rise to the Top
But all of that leadership had prepared him: in January 2020, he was named president and CEO of CBS Entertainment Group. In April 2024, he added co-chairman of Paramount Global, along with Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins, to that title. In that role, he has continued to oversee CBS Entertainment. On Aug. 4, Paramount Skydance announced its leadership team, with Cheeks remaining as chair, TV media, adding oversight of all of the company’s TV studios and cable networks to his current purview over everything CBS. Through all of it, Cheeks has kept his teams focused on sticking to their strategy.

“The more we’ve doubled down and focused on our strategy and the task at hand, the more we’ve delivered results,” Cheeks said. “We knew we needed to present our new owner with a working strategy. That’s been a mandate we’ve aligned around and that’s been helpful.” To that end, CBS was up 7% in viewers, excluding sports, at the end of the 2024-25 TV season. It also boasted five of the top 10 most-viewed shows on network television, with Justin Hartley-starrer Tracker leading the pack with an average of 17.34 million viewers an episode.

“The fact that we’ve maintained our No. 1 status for 17 straight years — that can be very much attributed to George,” CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach said. “We would not have accomplished that without him having the foresight to expand our franchises and brands. He really pushes us to think about the kinds of shows we’re programming and to make sure they will work for us on linear, streaming and internationally.”

Live sports, which is one of the most powerful drivers of traditional television, also has thrived under Cheeks’ leadership. CBS continues to program such big sporting events as NFL football, The Masters golf tournament and the NCAA men’s March Madness college basketball tournament, which it airs in partnership with TNT Sports.

“George sees and appreciates the value of sports,” said Dave Berson, president and CEO, CBS Sports. “Obviously, there’s been a lot of noise around our company. George handles all of that noise and allows people to stay focused on the task at hand. He’s there when and how we want him to be.”