Jon Stewart’s biting satire may have made his new bosses squirm, but they went ahead and extended the comedian’s run on Comedy Central through December 2026.
The channel’s parent company, Paramount, announced Monday that Stewart will continue to host “The Daily Show” on Monday nights and serve as an executive producer through the end of next year.
Members of the show’s news team will continue to share Tuesday through Thursday hosting duties. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.
“Jon Stewart continues to elevate the genre he created. His return is an ongoing commitment to the incisive comedy and sharp commentary that define The Daily Show,” Ari Pearce, Comedy Central’s manager said in a prepared statement. “We’re proud to support Jon and the extraordinary news team.”
Stewart’s contract was re-upped nearly four months after Paramount-owned sister network CBS notified Stephen Colbert, who rose to fame on “The Daily Show,” that it was dumping his late night show at the end of the season. The cancelation was revealed days after Colbert lambasted a $16 million settlement Paramount agreed to pay President Trump to end a lawsuit over edits to “60 Minutes.” Colbert called the arrangement “a big fat bribe.”
Paramount settled the Trump suit to win approval from the Trump administration of its sale to David Ellison’s Skydance Media and RedBird Capital Partners. CBS has said the reason for Colbert’s cancellation was financial, not political, although many people have expressed doubts.
Ellison took ownership of Paramount in August. Stewart has joked that he, too, might be tossed as the company tries to reposition itself to the political center.
Last week, the company began a deep round of layoffs, cutting 1,000 employees with plans to terminate another 1,000 in the coming weeks, in an effort to trim its workforce by 10%.
After a nine-year absence, Stewart returned as a host in February 2024. He had helmed the show for 16 years before taking a break in 2015. His current contract was expiring.
The show was hosted by Trevor Noah until 2022, when he stepped down. That prompted a rotation of guest hosts, including Kal Penn, Charlamagne tha God, Sarah Silverman and Michelle Wolf.
Last month, during a conversation with the New Yorker at a cultural festival, Stewart was asked whether he might stick around longer. “We’re working on staying,” Stewart told the New Yorker’s David Remnick.
The rotation of “The Daily Show” hosts also will include Ronny Chieng, Josh Johnson, Jordan Klepper, Michael Kosta, and Desi Lydic with Troy Iwata and Grace Kuhlenschmidt.
NBCUniversal owner Comcast is indeed interested in some of Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets.
On a Thursday call with analysts to discuss third-quarter earnings, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh suggested the Philadelphia giant might bid for certain Warner assets, primarily the Warner Bros. film and television studios and its streaming service HBO Max.
Comcast isn’t looking to acquire the entire company or Warner’s large portfolio of cable channels that include CNN, TBS and Food Network. Instead, Cavanagh suggested that Comcast’s interest would be more narrow.
He noted that NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. have compatible businesses. Comcast wants to grow its studios business and its struggling streaming service, Peacock, which lost $217 million during the quarter.
“You should expect us to look at things that are trading in our space … It’s our job to try to figure out if there are ways to add value,” Cavanagh told analysts.
But he added a note of caution, saying the company didn’t feel that a merger was “necessary.”
“The bar is very high for us to pursue any [merger] transactions,” he said.
The Warner Bros. Discovery auction comes amid deep turmoil in the industry. Traditional entertainment companies, including Warner and NBCUniversal, have long relied heavily on cable programming fees to boost profit but consumers have been scaling back on pay-TV subscriptions amid the move to streaming.
To address that challenge, Comcast is spinning off its cable channels, including CNBC, MSNBC, USA and Golf Channel, into a separately traded company called Versant. That process is expected to be complete this year.
As part of the transition, the liberal-leaning MSNBC is changing its name to MS Now and dropping the peacock from its network logo, reflecting its pending exit from NBC, which will remain part of Comcast.
Cavanagh suggested that Comcast would not double down in a declining cable channel business that it was already exiting.
But Warner has other compelling businesses, including HBO and its Warner Bros. film and television studio. The Warner Bros. studio has released a string of movie blockbusters this year, including “Superman” and “A Minecraft Movie.”
Warner and NBCUniversal are investing in their respective streaming services but both lag Netflix, YouTube and Walt Disney Co. in terms of subscribers and engagement. Peacock has 41 million subscribers; the service has lost billions of dollars since Comcast launched it five years ago.
To shore up Peacock and the NBC broadcast network, Comcast has doubled down on sports, including striking a $27-billion, 10-year deal for NBA basketball, a contract that kicked in this month with the new season. (Nielsen ratings for the inaugural NBA game on NBC last week were strong — nearly 5 million viewers).
Most analysts believe that Ellison’s Paramount is in the best position to win Warner Bros. Discovery. They point to the Ellison family’s determination, wealth and political connections. Tech titan Larry Ellison, who is backing his son’s bid, is the second-richest man in the world behind Elon Musk, and President Trump views the elder Ellison as a good friend.
In contrast, Trump has displayed a dim view of Comcast Chairman and Chief Executive Brian Roberts, in large part, because of Comcast’s ownership of MSNBC, which Trump has accused of being an arm of the Democratic National Committee.
The tension has led observers to conclude that Comcast would face a stormy regulatory review process with Trump overseeing the Department of Justice, which would likely perform an anti-trust review of any major transaction for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Concerns about Comcast’s ability to get deals through the Trump administration may be overblown, Cavanagh said.
“I think more things are viable than maybe some of the public commentary [suggests],” Cavanagh said.
Paramount Chairman David Ellison’s latest offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery contained a twist:
Should Paramount, backed by tech billionaire Larry Ellison, pull off the purchase, Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav could stay on to help lead the combined enterprise.
“They’re sweetening the pot,” Paul Hardart, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, said of the Ellison family. “It just shows all the little arrows in their quiver they’re using to try to push this deal.”
David Ellison’ unexpected olive branch to Zaslav was contained in a letter this month to Warner Bros. Discovery’s board that offered $58 billion in cash and stock for the entire company. The move underscores the family’s determination to win the entertainment company that includes HBO, CNN and Warner Bros. film and television studios — and an obstacle in their path.
After hustling for decades to get to the big stage, Zaslav, 65, isn’t ready to relinquish the reins. He’s eager to prove critics wrong and complete a turnaround after three painful years of setbacks and cost cuts to reduce the company’s mountain of debt.
Warner Bros. Discovery board members, including Zaslav, have unanimously voted to reject Paramount’s three bids, viewing them as too low and not in the best interest of shareholders, according to two people close to the company who were not authorized to comment.
The board supports Zaslav’s desire to forge ahead with a planned split of the company next spring. But it also has opened the auction to other potential suitors, which is expected to lead to the firm changing hands for the third time in a decade.
Representatives of Zaslav, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount declined to comment.
David Ellison’s audacious offer is being guaranteed by his father, Larry Ellison, the world’s second richest man with a net worth that exceeds $340 billion. The Ellisons’ proposal includes paying 80% cash to Warner shareholders and the rest in stock, according to two people familiar with the matter who weren’t authorized to comment. The most recent offer was $23.50 a share.
The Ellisons began their campaign last month, just weeks after David Ellison’s Skydance Media, along with RedBird Capital Partners, picked up the keys to Paramount, which includes CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon and the Melrose Avenue film studio, which has been depleted by decades of underinvestment.
The proposed addition of the more vibrant Warner Bros. would give the Ellisons an unparalleled entertainment portfolio with DC Comics including Superman, “Top Gun,” Scooby-Doo, Harry Potter, “The Matrix” and “The Gilded Age.”
The family would control streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+, nearly three dozen cable channels, including HGTV, Food Network and TBS, and two legacy news operations — CNN and CBS News.
It would also accelerate the trend of uber billionaires, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, of owning prominent news, entertainment and social media platforms. Larry Ellison also is part of a U.S.-based consortium lined up by President Trump to buy TikTok from its Chinese owners.
“If a trade deal with China is imminent, and TikTok would be aligned, then it would create a new media colossus, the likes of which we haven’t seen,” said veteran executive Jonathan Miller, chief executive of the investment firm Integrated Media Co.
Paramount is in talks to merge with Warner Bros. Discovery.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times; Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
The drama is unfolding as Paramount on Wednesday slashed 1,000 workers in the first round of cuts since Ellison took over. A second wave of layoffs — affecting another 1,000 workers — is expected in the coming weeks, helping fulfill a promise made to Wall Street by Ellison and Redbird to reduce expenses by more than $2 billion.
Combining with Warner Bros. would bring more layoffs, analysts said, and a potential hollowing out of a historic studio.
“Merger after merger in the media industry has harmed workers, diminished competition and free speech, and wasted hundreds of billions of dollars better invested in organic growth,” the Writers Guild of America West, said last week in a statement in opposition to the proposed unification. “Combining Warner Bros. with Paramount or another major studio or streamer would be a disaster for writers, for consumers, and for competition.”
Critics point to a long list of media merger misfires, including the disastrous AOL Time Warner merger a quarter century ago. Some critics contend Walt Disney Co.’s $71-billion purchase of much of Rupert Murdoch’s entertainment holdings didn’t live up to expectations, and AT&T whiffed its $85-billion deal for Time Warner, handing it to Zaslav’s Discovery four years later for $43 billion.
The New York native, a descendant of Jewish immigrants from Poland and Ukraine, had spent 16 years running the Discovery cable channel group, a respectable business, but one that lacked Hollywood flash.
Zaslav grew up on the fringe of New York City, in Ramapo, N.Y., where he’d been a promising tennis player who proudly wore his athletic gear to middle school. Tennis was his identity — until he started getting beat by players he used to whip.
Zaslav’s coach sat him down, bluntly saying he wasn’t putting in the work.
“I vowed that day I would never be outworked again,” Zaslav said during a 2023 commencement address to Boston University graduates. Underlings have long marveled at his indefatigable work ethic.
The speech was meant to be his triumphant return to his alma mater. Zaslav had finally made it to Hollywood, where he was now holding court in an exquisite corner office that had belonged to studio founder Jack Warner.
Zaslav had big plans to turn around Warner Bros. But, in Boston, he suffered a beatdown.
The Writers Guild of America had just gone on strike against his and other Hollywood studios. Protesters heckled Zaslav. Students booed. A plane flew overhead, waving a banner that read: “David Zaslav Pay Your Writers.”
He had assumed control a year earlier, in April 2022, just as Wall Street soured on media companies that were spending wildly to build streaming services to compete with Netflix.
Zaslav inherited a venture bleeding billions of dollars to get into streaming. The merger itself saddled the company with $55 billion of debt. Warner’s stock plummeted.
He and his team spent the first few years slashing divisions, canceling TV programs and contracts, and shelving movies. To further reduce expenses, the company laid off thousands of workers. Hollywood soon viewed Zaslav with derision.
It didn’t help that Zaslav has long been one of the most handsomely compensated executives in America.
There were high-profile stumbles, including jettisoning staff of the tiny Turner Classic Movies channel and an ill-conceived rebrand of its streamer to “Max” before changing the name back to HBO Max.
“The Warner Bros. Discovery merger was a well-intended failure,” Hardart said. “The cable subscriber base shrank at a faster rate than most people had forecast. … Thousands have lost their jobs, the HBO brand has been reimagined and reimagined, films have been mothballed and the future of the Warner Bros. studio is today uncertain.”
Warner Bros. Discovery paid down $20 billion in debt, but $35 billion remains. The debt load has nearly suffocated the company, making it a vulnerable target.
“There was a lot of fixing that David Zaslav and his team had to do,” Bank of America media analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich said in a recent interview. “It’s been three years of incredibly heavy lifting — but that’s pretty much done now.”
In a note to investors last week, Ehrlich wrote Warner’s strong franchises, including DC Comics, and its voluminous library make it “an extremely attractive potential acquisition target,” one that could fetch $30 a share. Her firm carries a “buy” rating on the stock.
Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav and AT&T Chief Executive John Stankey shake hands on May 17, 2021, in New York City.
(Preston Bradford / Discovery)
Last summer, Zaslav announced plans to split the company in two halves.
Zaslav would run Warner Bros., which would consist of the Burbank studios, HBO and the HBO Max streaming service. Longtime lieutenant Gunnar Wiedenfels would helm Discovery Global, made up of the firm’s international businesses and basic cable channels, which face an uncertain future in the streaming era.
Those who know Zaslav believe he’s working to stave off the Ellison takeover, in part, because he wants the chance to bring the company back to its glory, which would ultimately make it more valuable for its investors and prospective buyers.
For Warner management, that’s part of the rub. The Ellisons showed up just as the company was displaying signs of a turnaround, including a hot streak by Warner Bros. that includes “A Minecraft Movie,” Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” James Gunn’s “Superman,” Formula One adventure “F1: The Movie,” and horror flick “Weapons.”
Larry, from left, Megan and David Ellison attend the premiere of Paramount Pictures’ “Terminator Genisys” at Dolby Theatre on June 28, 2015.
(Lester Cohen / WireImage)
Ellison’s bidding was designed to thwart Warner’s planned corporate breakup.
For now, analysts said, Zaslav and the Warner board’s current strategy is solid because they have effectively driven up the stock price, which has doubled to $21 a share since the Ellison’s interest became known in mid-September.
“They are doing the right thing,” Hardart said. “In any sale, you try to beat the bushes and get as many people interested. But at some point the board is going to have to make a decision.”
Added one investor: “They’ve gotten Paramount-Skydance to bid against itself, and that only goes so far.”
Analysts expect Philadelphia giant Comcast, owner of NBCUniversal, and potentially Netflix, Apple or Amazon to take a look at the company’s studio, library and streaming assets.
But many see the Ellison’s Skydance as having the edge.
Paramount, in its recent letter to the Warner board, argued that it was the best and most logical buyer.
“What Skydance offers WBD, in many ways, is what it offered Paramount: The ability to be aggressive and push all aspects of the business in a way that most people or companies that have less capital just can’t do,” Miller said. “They are deploying real capital, and they are being the most aggressive folks in the industry right now.”
Paramount on Wednesday was expected to cut 1,000 employees, the first wave of a deep staff reduction planned since David Ellison took the helm of the entertainment company in August.
People familiar with the matter but not authorized to comment said the layoffs will be felt throughout the company, including at CBS, CBS News, Comedy Central and other cable channels as well as the historic Melrose Avenue film studio.
Another 1,000 jobs are expected to be cut at a later date, bringing the total reduction to about 10% of Paramount’s workforce, sources said.
The move was expected. Paramount’s new owners — Ellison’s Skydance Media and RedBird Capital Partners — had told investors they planned to eliminate more than $2 billion in expenses, and Wednesday’s workforce reduction was a preliminary step toward that goal.
Paramount has been shedding staff for years.
More than 800 people — or about 3.5% of the company’s workforce — were laid off in June, prior to the Ellison family takeover. At the time, Paramount’s management attributed the cuts to the decline of cable television subscriptions and an increased emphasis on bulking up its streaming TV business. In 2024, the company eliminated 2,000 positions, or 15% of its staff.
The Paramount layoffs are the latest sign of contraction across the entertainment and tech sectors.
Amazon said this week it was eliminating roughly 14,000 corporate jobs amid its embrace of artificial intelligence to perform more functions. Last week, Facebook parent company Meta disclosed that it was cutting 600 jobs in its AI division.
Last week, cable and broadband provider Charter Corp., which operates the Spectrum service, eliminated 1,200 management jobs around the country.
Los Angeles’ production economy in particular has been roiled by a falloff in local filming and cost-cutting at major media companies.
As of August, about 112,000 people were employed in the Los Angeles region’s motion picture and sound recording industries — the main category for film and television production. The data does not include everyone who works in the entertainment industry, such as those who work as independent contractors.
That was roughly flat compared with the previous year, and down 27% compared with 2022 levels, when about 154,000 people were employed locally in the industry, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The industry has struggled to rebound since the 2023 strikes by writers and actors, which led to a sharp pullback in studio spending following the era of so-called “peak TV,” when studios dramatically increased the pipeline of shows to build streaming platforms.
“You saw a considerable drop-off from the strikes and the aftermath,” said Kevin Klowden, an executive director at Milken Institute Finance. “The question is, at what point do these workers exit the industry entirely?”
Local film industry officials are expecting a production boost and an increase in work after California bolstered its film and television tax credits.
But Southern California’s bedrock industry is confronting other challenges, including shifting consumer habits and competition from social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok.
“There is a larger concern in terms of the financial health of all the major operations in Hollywood,” Klowden said. “There’s a real concern about that level of competition, and what it means.”
Billionaire Larry Ellison ponied up the money for his family to acquire the controlling stake in Paramount two months ago, and the tech titan would need to write another huge check should Paramount buy Warner Bros. Discovery.
So, in Hollywood circles, the question has been: How involved is the elder Ellison in Paramount’s strategy and operations?
Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison said he speaks with his father every day, but he drew an important distinction:
“Look, I run the company day to day. Make no mistake about that,” David Ellison said Thursday at Bloomberg’s Screentime media conference in Hollywood, adding that his father had been a “phenomenal” mentor and “we couldn’t have a better relationship.”
“He is the largest shareholder in the business,” Ellison said. “What’s important for everybody to know is the way he approaches this is: How do we maximize value for our shareholders? … I think he’s best in the world for doing that.”
Since the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners acquired Paramount in August, its stock is up more than 50%. Much of the run-up came last month after news leaked that Paramount was interested in acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN, TBS, Food Network and one of Hollywood’s most prolific film and television studios.
Ellison refused to comment on Paramount’s pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery or whether his team had already made a bid.
But he did shed light on the business strategy behind any pursuit, while trying to tamp down fears that another big merger would result in more cost-cutting, more job losses and a reduction in content spending.
“The way we approach everything is, first and foremost: What’s good for the talent community, what’s good for our shareholders and value creation, and what’s good for basically storytelling at large?” Ellison said. “We’re looking at actually producing more movies [and] more television series … because you need that content.”
Paramount staffers are bracing for a massive workforce reduction next month, part of the company’s goal of finding more than $2 billion in spending cuts.
The company also invested in the construction of a Texas-based production hub for prolific “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan and agreed to pay $1.5 billion over five years for streaming rights for “South Park,” the Comedy Central cartoon. And Paramount lured Matt and Ross Duffer, who created “Stranger Things,” away from Netflix with an exclusive four-year television, streaming and film deal.
Warner Bros. Discovery, led by Chief Executive David Zaslav, also has declined to discuss Paramount’s interest, although people close to the company have suggested Zaslav would like to see bidding war.
No other studios have publicly expressed interest and, on Wednesday, Netflix Co-Chief Executive Greg Peters downplayed such speculation.
“We come from a deep heritage of being builders rather than buyers,” Peters said during a separate appearance at the Screentime conference, adding the track record for big mergers was not great.
But Wall Street widely expects more consolidation among entertainment firms.
“Ironically, it was David Zaslav last year who said that consolidation in the media business is important,” Ellison said, adding “there are a lot of options out there.” But he declined to elaborate.
Analysts have speculated that, beyond Paramount, few other media companies have financial firepower to pull off a bid. And Paramount has an “in” that several other media companies, including Brian Roberts’ Comcast, lack: a good relationship with President Trump and his administration.
Trump has called Larry Ellison a good friend. After David Ellison spoke with Trump at a June UFC fight, the previous managers of Paramount got traction in their efforts to settle Trump’s lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview last fall with Kamala Harris. Paramount paid $16 million in July to settle the suit and weeks later the Federal Communications Commission approved the Ellison takeover of Paramount.
“We have a good relationship with the administration,” David Ellison said.
CBS News will learn a lot about its future next week when Bari Weiss, founder of the upstart news site the Free Press, is expected to enter the hallowed halls where Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace once roamed.
Weiss, 41, is joining CBS News in a new role of editor in chief, according to people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly. The appointment could be announced as soon as Monday.
David Ellison, 42, chairman and chief executive of CBS-owner Paramount, approached Weiss months ago, part of his campaign to shake things up. She will report to Ellison and work alongside CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, who joined the network in February.
Under the deal, Paramount has agreed to buy Weiss’ four-year-old digital media business, which offers newsletters, reported pieces, podcasts, and what it calls “sense-making columns,” for around $150 million in cash and stock. For months, her anticipated arrival at CBS News, an aging pillar of the press establishment, has been a hot topic in the news business.
The rapid rise of Weiss — a former newspaper opinion page staff editor — to a major role in shaping the coverage of a TV news organization with no previous experience in the medium is an extraordinary move that is likely to be highly scrutinized.
Will she remold the news division — which has been beset by management turnover and sustained pressure from President Trump — in her image? There will also be questions as to whether the founder of a relatively lean digital operation such as the Free Press will have a leadership role at a legacy TV news organization with more than 1,000 employees.
A shake-up is clearly on the agenda of new Paramount owner Skydance Media. When the company went through regulatory approval to complete its $8-billion merger, Federal Communications Chairman Brendan Carr said he welcomes Skydance’’s “commitment to make significant changes to the once storied CBS broadcast network.”
In order to clear a path for the deal, Paramount paid $16 million to settle Trump’s $20-billion lawsuit — deemed by legal experts to be spurious — over an interview he claimed was edited to help then-Vice President Kamala Harris, his opponent in the 2024 election. He has left the network alone ever since.
Skydance and the Free Press did not comment on the expected appointment of Weiss. When asked in August about her joining the network, Ellison — son of Oracle co-founder and Trump ally Larry Ellison — focused on how he wants the news division to speak to what he views as the 70% of Americans who consider themselves center left or center right politically.
In a crowded sea of political and cultural pundits, Weiss found her own lane as a gay Jewish woman who attacked what she called the excesses of the political left, often saying it was intolerant of opposing viewpoints. She called herself “a diversity hire” at the New York Times’ reliably liberal opinion section and gained a following through her appearances on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.”
When she quit the New York Times in 2020, she accused her former employer of failing to protect her from internal criticism by her colleagues. Her public resignation letter was shared on social media by Donald Trump Jr. and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who used it to advance their case of institutional liberal bias in the media.
Described as a confident and skilled communicator, Weiss used her notoriety to attract investors for the Free Press, a digital media business offering newsletters, reported stories, opinion pieces and podcasts. Launched in 2021, it now ranks as the No. 1 best-selling politics platform on Substack.
The Free Press has made itself heard in the national conversation. A treatise on the left-wing leanings of NPR, written by a longtime editor at the radio service, generated massive attention and likely helped set the stage for eliminating federal funding to public media.
Last year, the Free Press also broke the story over the internal CBS News controversy surrounding “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil‘s aggressive questioning of author Ta-Nehisi Coates, who compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank to the Jim Crow era of segregation in the U.S.
Dokoupil said Coates’ book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.” After some staffers complained, Dokoupil was admonished by CBS News leadership on an editorial call that the Free Press posted online.
Weiss is extremely popular among corporate executives disdainful of high taxes and big government. Finance and private equity executives rave about Free Press missives against purportedly “woke” attitudes and DEI initiatives that they believe have made it more difficult to do business.
Newsrooms are typically suspicious of outsiders and change has never come easy at CBS News, which has a culture steeped in its storied past.
“A place like CBS News is so rooted in its traditions and in what it believes in,” said Tom Bettag, a veteran network news producer who is a lecturer for the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. “It’s got its own theology and an outsider has to win the confidence of the people inside.”
Even like-minded conservative commentators such as Megyn Kelly suggested that Weiss might face challenges in navigating such an entrenched institution.
“I’m worried they’re going to eat her alive, because CBS is among the worst when it comes to being insular,” Kelly said on her Sirius XM podcast last month. “Like you have to be raised by CBS to be respected by CBS people.”
A number of veterans inside CBS News who were not authorized to speak publicly said they have a wait-and-see attitude over the pending Weiss appointment, as they are uncertain on what her role will entail. They don’t believe Weiss will want to deal with day-to-day news coverage decisions such as how many correspondents and technical crews to send to cover a natural disaster.
David Ellison, Paramount Skydance chief executive officer
(Paramount/Skydance)
Having an opinion journalist in a leadership role may not sit well among a number of staffers. But with layoffs sweeping through the TV news business, an employee exodus predicted in some reports appears unlikely, according to one former CBS News executive.
One possible source of tension may be in international coverage, primarily the war in Gaza, which has been the subject of internal debate in many newsrooms.
Weiss, who once belonged to the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh that was the site of a shooting massacre in 2018, is a staunch Israel supporter. She’s joining a company that, led by its new management, was the only studio to push back against a campaign gathering steam among Hollywood progressives to boycott Israeli film festivals and organizations.
But ideological newsroom flare-ups that spill into public view are rare. Managing a network TV news division largely consists of keeping an eye on costs, ratings and maintaining a pipeline of stories for dozens of hours of scheduled programming each week.
Despite its well-documented troubles, CBS still has two of the most successful news programs on television in “60 Minutes” and “CBS Sunday Morning.”
Even after the gauntlet “60 Minutes” went through earlier this year, viewers showed up when it returned for its 58th season Sunday with a season premiere that drew 10 million viewers, making it the most-watched non-sports show of the week, according to Nielsen data.
Bettag noted that even though former Paramount majority shareholder Shari Redstone was updated on “60 Minutes” stories amid the legal battle earlier this year, he believes the program retained its editorial rigor and independence.
“If anything, it stiffened spines,” Bettag said.
“CBS Sunday Morning” remains the most watched weekend morning program and increased its share of the TV audience last season, averaging close to 5 million viewers weekly.
While those two programs still attract large, loyal audiences, CBS News is faced with declining ratings and revenue, as viewers continue to move away from traditional TV to digital video offerings. CBS News has long operated a 24-hour streaming channel, but it doesn’t attract the same audience levels or ad rates as the network.
The CBS Broadcast Center in New York City on April 20, 2023.
(Ted Shaffrey / Associated Press)
CBS News also has to regain the trust of the audience that has listened to right-wing pundits pound away at the credibility of mainstream press.
It’s hardly a new development as conservative North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms tried to lead a takeover CBS in the mid-1980s so he could “become Dan Rather’s boss.” But social media have amplified those bias allegations, driving MAGA-supporting viewers to Fox News and other conservative-leaning outlets.
Bettag believes CBS News has to do a better job of getting the public to understand the editorial process and how it strives for accuracy and fairness to counter the right-wing narrative of media bias.
“If Bari Weiss can come in and explain what they’re doing and why they’re doing it then I think she can be successful,” he said.
Veteran TV news executives warn that any overt attempt to woo disaffected conservatives risks alienating the millions of viewers who are still watching CBS News programs. CNN’s attempt to try to cater to right-leaning consumers — at the behest of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery — led to a decline in audience that has not bounced back.
One idea circulating at Paramount is having the Free Press remain as an independent entity within the company, providing contributors and commentators to its special coverage, the Sunday round table program “Face the Nation” and streaming channel.
While the Free Press has been embraced by conservatives, Weiss has been fluid in her political leanings, at least in the voting booth. Her recent votes for president were Mitt Romney in 2012, Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.
In a video posted last fall, Weiss said the Free Press staff was split three ways between Trump, Harris and undecided in their 2024 vote. She called it a reflection of the nation.
Weiss is pro abortion rights and favors pro-gun control and LGBTQ rights (Weiss is married to Nellie Bowles, a former New York Times journalist who also works at the Free Press).
She has said she was among the many who cried at their desks when Trump was first elected in 2016. But she told Fox News in early 2024 that her view of the president had moderated since, as she approved of his handling of Israel and the economy during his first term.
“I’m the first to admit that I was a sufferer of what conservatives at the time would have called TDS, Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Weiss said.
But the Free Press does not give Trump a free pass as other right-wing outlets have. One of the current lead stories on the site is a highly critical take on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech on warrior ethos given to military leadership on Tuesday.
Staff writer Meg James contributed to this report.
Warner Bros. Discovery stock jumped more than 25% Thursday morning after a report that the Larry Ellison-backed Paramount was preparing a cash bid to buy the company that owns HBO, CNN and the Warner Bros. studio.
The Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners acquired Paramount a month ago, and has signaled that it would take bold steps as it tries to rebuild Paramount to its former glory. David Ellison, Larry’s 42-year-old son, serves as chairman and chief executive of Paramount.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount’s bid would be for the entire company, including its movie studio, streaming assets and cable networks. Warner Bros. Discovery is in the process of spinning the cable channels into a separate company, a transaction that Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav said would be complete by next April.
Representatives of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment.
Warner Bros. Discovery stock closed at $12.54 on Wednesday. It had soared to around $16 a share in Thursday mid-day trading.
Paramount Skydance shares also climbed 7% to around $16.30.
In one of his first company-wide directives, Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison announced that employees must work in the office five days a week, beginning in January.
In a Thursday email, Ellison outlined the company’s phased-in approach for office attendance — including offering a severance package to Los Angeles- and New York-based vice presidents and lower-ranking employees if they wish to leave the company rather than return to the office.
The move sets the stage for what’s expected to be deep staff cuts later this year. Ellison and his RedBird Capital Partners investors have promised Wall Street more than $2 billion in cost savings as they take over the storied media company, install their own teams and integrate Skydance Media businesses, including video games and animation, into Paramount’s operations. Paramount previously cut several hundred jobs this summer.
Paramount representatives have declined to comment on the pending layoffs beyond saying they hope to achieve the cuts with one large round.
On Thursday, Paramount said it had reached a three-year global film distribution deal with “Dune” studio Legendary, beginning with next year’s “Street Fighter.” Paramount will market and distribute Legendary films throughout the world, except in China, where Legendary East oversees releases.
Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal allows Warner Bros. to continue to distribute some films, including co-productions “Dune: Part Three” in 2026 and “Godzilla x Kong: Supernova” in 2027.
CBS News also is bracing for change. Paramount’s new chief is reportedly in negotiations with journalist Bari Weiss to buy her center-right news site, the Free Press, and join CBS News in an undisclosed role. A Paramount spokesperson on Thursday declined to comment on the talks.
Until now, Paramount staffers were expected to be in the office a couple days a week, but it was not consistently applied, according to people with knowledge of the matter but not authorized to comment.
Ellison is attempting to reset Paramount’s culture after years of under-investment, layoffs and management turmoil. In the email, he wrote the return-to-office directive was aimed at “building a stronger, more connected, and agile organization that can deliver on our goals and compete at the highest level.”
“We have a lot to accomplish and we’re moving fast,” Ellison said. “We need to all be rowing in the same direction. And especially when you’re dealing with a creative business like ours, that begins with being together in person.”
Media companies have had varying policies after the initial “work-from-home” policies imposed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic nearly five and a half years ago. Sony Pictures Entertainment brought its employees back to the Culver City lot relatively quickly. Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger ordered a return to the office in January 2023, less than two months after he returned to lead the company.
“As I said during our town hall, some of the most formative moments of my life happened in rooms where I was a fly on the wall, listening and learning,” Ellison wrote in his email. “I’ve never seen that happen on Zoom. Being together in-person isn’t just about showing up — it’s about actively engaging with the business, supporting one another and the team’s efforts, and contributing to our shared momentum.”
Times Staff Writer Sam Masunaga contributed to this report.
In a major early move under new ownership, Paramount acquired the media rights to UFC’s mixed martial arts events in the U.S., the company said Monday.
Paramount signed a seven-year deal with TKO Group Holdings that will put 13 marquee events and 30 fight nights on streaming platform Paramount+. Some of the matches will air on broadcast TV network CBS.
Paramount is paying an average of $1.1 billion a year, totaling $7.7 billion, more than double the amount under TKO’s current pact with ESPN, which expires at the end of 2025.
The deal is a signal that Paramount intends to be aggressive in its pursuit of properties that will make its streaming platform attractive to consumers as it battles with Netflix, Amazon and other competitors.
David Ellison, who became chief executive of Paramount last week after his company Skydance completed an $8-billion merger with the media company, has been seen at recent UFC fights speaking with President Trump. Ellison had been awaiting regulatory approval of the Paramount-Skydance merger.
The major promotions presented throughout the year by TKO and WWE are seen as powerful tools to keep streaming subscribers signed up.
Under the new pact, UFC will no longer use pay-per-view to distribute its offerings, in a significant shift. All fights will be available with a Paramount + subscription. TKO produces 43 live events a year, providing 350 hours of live programming.
“This is a milestone moment and trademark deal for UFC, solidifying its position as a preeminent sports asset,” said Ari Emanuel, executive chair of TKO.
The Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN will remain in business with TKO, having recently signed a new five-year $1.6-billion deal to carry its WWE events. ESPN will offer WWE events such as WrestleMania and SummerSlam to subscribers of its direct-to-consumer platform, which launches later this month.
David Ellison finally clinched his prize Thursday, completing Skydance Media’s $8-billion takeover of the historic Paramount.
But the tech scion immediately faced questions about President Trump’s boast that he expects $20 million in free advertising and programming as part of a settlement to end Trump’s lawsuit over CBS “60 Minutes” edits. The settlement cleared the way for Skydance’s takeover of the company that, in addition to CBS, includes MTV, Comedy Central and the storied Paramount Pictures.
Last month, Paramount paid $16 million to settle the lawsuit, which 1st Amendment experts said had no merit. Three weeks later, Ellison’s acquisition of Paramount was approved by federal regulators.
If Skydance participated in such a deal to give free public service announcements to Trump to settle his “60 Minutes” lawsuit, viewers are going to have to watch CBS to find out.
The first question Ellison, the newly minted chairman and chief executive of Paramount, fielded from reporters during a news briefing Thursday was about the purported PSAs. Ellison would not directly answer it.
“We are not going to politicize anything today,” Ellison said at the event held at Paramount headquarters in Times Square in New York.
Paramount Global handled the settlement and Skydance was not involved “in any way,” Ellison said. But Trump — who has a friendly relationship with Ellison’s father, Larry — has proclaimed numerous times that he’s been promised $20 million in free air time for public service announcements that promote causes favored by the White House. Trump’s former agent Ari Emanuel also helped Ellison make its case to the president to allow the deal to go forward.
Ellison and the other top executives stated their support for the news division at the news conference. Ellison said CBS News and “60 Minutes” were among the first stops on his tour of the company’s offices after the deal was closed.
As for the news ombudsman that Skydance agreed to as part of the terms to get approval, Paramount’s new president, Jeff Shell, said the position should not be viewed as a censor.
“The ombudsman is meant to be a transparency vehicle, not an oversight vehicle,” Shell said. “We do believe in transparency.”
Asked how Skydance will handle the ongoing attacks on mainstream media that continue to come from the White House, Ellison said the company will stand its ground.
“We’re obviously going to be fierce defenders of our talent,” Ellison said. “We always have been.”
Before the news conference, Ellison put out a mission statement for the merged company, promising to combine the company’s storied movie and TV properties with technological prowess. Paramount is also the home of several iconic but aging cable brand names, including MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.
“Moving forward, we will work with conviction and optimism to transform Paramount into a tech-forward company that blends the creative heart of Hollywood with the innovative spirit of Silicon Valley,” Ellison wrote.
The immediate challenge facing Skydance will be building the scale of Paramount+, which, despite a decent number of popular shows, has lagged in the streaming competition led by Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Ellison promised the direct-to-consumer offering can be “a leading global streaming service.”
The mogul is taking over the most-watched television network in CBS, but like the rest of the legacy media industry, it’s fighting the migration of viewers to streaming.
Ellison’s note made a point of praising “60 Minutes,” saying it has “a long tradition of impactful reporting led by seasoned journalists committed to accuracy, integrity, and public trust” and expressed thanks to the news division for continuing to toil through the controversy.
“We take immense pride in CBS News’ legacy of impactful journalism and look forward to continuing to foster a newsroom culture where journalists are empowered, trusted, and equipped to do their best work,” Ellison wrote.
The new company is now called Paramount, a Skydance Corp, with its stock trades under the PSKY ticker. Shares were trading down about 3%, to $11.25, in midday trading.
According to Ellison and his private equity Paramount investors, RedBird Capital Partners, the company will soon be positioned to reach new heights.
Ellison’s play for the studio began nearly two years ago during Hollywood’s summer of labor unrest, when then-controlling shareholder Shari Redstone’s family enterprise, National Amusements, found itself in a cash crunch after Paramount halted its dividend to its investors.
In December 2023, Redstone turned to Paramount’s board to approve the Skydance transaction. That triggered another fraught process as board members agonized over the structure of a deal that would reward rank-and-file shareholders — not just the Redstones.
The deal was finally signed July 7, 2024. As part of the Skydance buyout, the Redstones’ National Amusements Inc. was paid $2.4 billion. After the firm’s considerable debts are paid, the family should come away with about $1.75 billion.
Paramount shareholders will receive $4.5 billion. Skydance and RedBird Capital Partners also agreed to inject $1.5 billion into Paramount’s balance sheet to help pay down debt.
“Our investment in Paramount and long-term partnership with the Ellison family reflects our deep conviction in the value of world-class intellectual property and the potential to unlock substantial growth,” RedBird founder Gerry Cardinale said in a statement.
While “60 Minutes” will soon have a new owner, the CBS newsmagazine’s next executive producer is coming from inside the family.
Tanya Simon, a 25-year veteran of the program, will take on the role vacated by Bill Owens in April. She has served as interim executive producer since his departure.
She is the daughter of the late Bob Simon, one of the best known correspondents during the program’s 57 year history.
Changes at the top of “60 Minutes” have been rare. Simon will be only the fourth executive producer in the program’s history and the first woman.
Simon’s appointment will be a relief to the program’s staff, where morale has been rocked by parent company Paramount Global’s battle with President Trump. The correspondents of the program signed a letter to company co-chairman George Cheeks urging him to give Simon the job.
Simon will have the backing of her colleagues who are thankful they won’t be dealing with an outsider who might not value the program’s editorial rigor and independence. But she will be faced with the challenge of navigating the operation after one of the most difficult periods in its history.
Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit against “60 Minutes” over the editing of an interview with his 2024 opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump claimed the interviews was deceptively edited to aid Harris in the election.
The case was labeled as frivolous by 1st Amendment experts and the settlement widely seen as a capitulation to Trump in order to clear a path for Paramount’s $8-billion merger with David Ellison’s Skydance Media.
While “60 Minutes” did not issue an apology or acknowledge any wrongdoing, the program is likely to face intense scrutiny going forward. Critics will be looking for signs of the program pulling its punches in reporting on Trump. In order to clear the Paramount Global deal with the FCC, Skydance has agreed to name a news division ombudsman that will report to the company’s president for at least the next two years.
“Tanya Simon understands what makes ’60 Minutes’ tick,” CBS News President Tom Cibrowski said in. a statement “She is an innovative leader, an exceptional producer, and someone who knows how to inspire people,” “
Simon got her start at CBS News in 1996 as a researcher for its other newsmagazine “48 Hours.” She joined “60 Minutes” in 2000, working with correspondent Ed Bradley on a variety of reports including the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. She went on to produce for nearly all of the program’s correspondents including her father.
Her work has earned virtually every major broadcast honor, including multiple Emmy Awards, the Peabody and the DuPont-Columbia Award.
David Ellison’s Skydance Media pledged to abandon all diversity, equity and inclusion programs at Paramount Global in an attempt to win government approval for its $8-billion merger.
Paramount already had scaled back diversity programs earlier this year. In a Tuesday letter to Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, Skydance said it would go further to cancel diversity efforts.
“Paramount no longer will maintain an Office of Global Inclusion and will not have any teams or individual roles focused on DEI,” Stephanie Kyoko McKinnon, Skydance general counsel, wrote in the three-page letter to Carr. The appointee of President Trump, in one of his first moves as chair, dismantled the agency’s diversity programs and called on companies to do the same.
Kyoko McKinnon said Paramount will remove “references to DEI in its public messaging, including on its websites and social media,” along with culling DEI language in “internal messaging and training materials.”
Last week, Ellison met with Carr to press his case that Skydance and its backer RedBird Capital Partners would be strong stewards of Paramount, which includes CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, BET and the Melrose Avenue movie studio, Paramount Pictures. Skydance needs Carr’s approval for the merger and the transfer of the CBS television station licenses to the Ellison family.
Skydance separately tackled persistent complaints by conservatives about alleged news bias at “60 Minutes” and other programs.
Ellison’s firm pledged to “promote transparency and increased accountability” at CBS News. The company said it would install an ombudsman, reporting to the president of Paramount, “to receive and evaluate any complaints of bias or other concerns involving CBS” for at least two years.
Trump’s ire over edits of a “60 Minutes” Kamala Harris interview last fall nearly derailed Skydance’s takeover of Paramount. Carr opened an inquiry into alleged news distortion after Trump sued CBS in federal court in Texas.
Earlier this month, Paramount reached a $16-million settlement with Trump to resolve the dispute that caused deep divisions within Paramount and prompted high-level CBS departures. Trump boasted Tuesday on Truth Social that he anticipates receiving an additional $20 million worth of advertising and PSA time from the new owners.
During his July 15 meeting with Carr, Ellison underscored “Skydance’s commitment to unbiased journalism and its embrace of diverse viewpoints, principles that will ensure CBS’s editorial decision-making reflects the varied ideological perspectives of American viewers,” according to an FCC filing.
Skydance’s Kyoko McKinnon added: “We further reaffirm that, after consummation of the proposed transaction, New Paramount’s new management will ensure that the company’s array of news and entertainment programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum, consistent with the varying perspectives of the viewing audience.”
Ellison recently met with prominent journalist Bari Weiss, reportedly to discuss Skydance acquiring her center-right online publication, the Free Press, as an alternative to traditional news sites. She started the outlet, which is often critical of DEI, after quitting her job as a New York Times opinion writer, citing intolerance of her and her more conservative viewpoints.
Skydance has said it didn’t have a role in the Colbert decision.
Skydance isn’t the only company under pressure to ditch diversity programs to win FCC approval for a deal.
Two months ago, telecommunications giant Verizon pledged to drop diversity efforts to gain Carr’s blessing for the company’s $20-billion takeover of Frontier Communications.
Paramount encouraged executives to make diverse hires and promotions, and progress toward the corporate goals was one of many factors considered when calculating bonuses. That program was dismantled last year.
For years, CBS struggled to shake its prime-time sitcom formula to build shows around white men, a la “King of Queens,” “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Two and a Half Men.”
CBS also championed mentorship programs for writers and directors to build a more diverse pipeline of creators. That initiative dated to 2004.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has made a priority of abolishing DEI programs.
(Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Skydance promised not to set numerical goals related to race, ethnicity or gender of job applicants.
“The company is committed to ensuring that its storytelling reflects the many audiences and communities it serves in a manner that complies with non-discrimination requirements and other applicable laws,” Kyoko McKinnon wrote.
“I am very encouraged by today’s announcements,” said Daniel Suhr, president of the conservative Center for American Rights, which filed an FCC complaint about “60 Minutes” and suggested a CBS News ombudsman. “These are important steps towards better broadcasting that serves all consumers.”
By early spring, Paramount Global was in crisis. President Trump wouldn’t budge from his demand for an eye-popping sum of money and an apology from the company to settle his lawsuit over a CBS News “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris. Journalists at the storied broadcaster were in revolt against the parent company.
Meanwhile, Paramount’s board faced withering pressure, with a settlement widely seen as a prerequisite for getting government approval for the company’s $8-billion sale to David Ellison’s Skydance Media, or the deal would collapse.
Then a new emergency erupted.
On May 4, CBS aired a hard-hitting “60 Minutes” segment that took aim at Trump’s targeting of law firms. Correspondent Scott Pelley anchored the report, which relied heavily on an interview with a leading Trump irritant — former top Hillary Clinton advisor Marc Elias.
Trump was furious. He threatened Paramount with an additional lawsuit alleging defamation, according to people close to the situation who were not authorized to comment.
The behind-the-scenes drama eventually would culminate with Paramount agreeing to pay $16 million to end the president’s battle over edits to October’s Harris interview, which Trump alleged was manipulated to boost the then-vice president’s election chances. Trump’s suit had demanded $20 billion in damages.
The deal resulted from months of back-and-forth among a constellation of power players with competing interests: the president, mogul Shari Redstone, tech billionaire Larry Ellison and his son David, Hollywood super agent Ari Emanuel, CBS News’ ousted leader Wendy McMahon and Jeff Shell, a former NBCUniversal chief now with RedBird Capital Partners, which backs Ellison’s Skydance.
The settlement, which the president approved late Tuesday, included a commitment by Trump to drop his claims and not sue over the May “60 Minutes” broadcast, according to sources and a Paramount statement.
Paramount said it agreed to pay Trump’s legal fees. The remainder of the $16-million settlement will go toward his future presidential library.
But the beleaguered company behind “Mission: Impossible” and “Yellowstone” mustered victories, withstanding the Trump team’s earlier demand for a $100-million payout, the knowledgeable sources said.
The company also refused to apologize for CBS’ reporting or edits, a stance to protect its journalistic ethics and 1st Amendment rights.
“This settlement allows Paramount to focus on its prospective sale, and CBS can maintain its principles,” said C. Kerry Fields, a business law professor at the USC Marshall School. “But principle has its price, and there certainly was one set here.”
The eight-month skirmish with Trump shined a harsh light on Paramount’s vulnerabilities — and deep divisions within the company and its prospective new owners.
Paramount had a narrow window to reach a truce. The company wanted to finalize the settlement before Wednesday, when Paramount held its annual shareholder meeting and three new members joined the board.
“This [settlement] was all about survival — it was that dark,” Fields said. “Paramount has to execute the sale to Skydance in order to survive.”
At first, Paramount’s sale to the Ellison family seemed like a sure bet. Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle Corp., is close to Trump and is also a possible buyer for TikTok, another deal of interest to the president. The landmark Paramount-Skydance deal, struck a year ago, could reshape one of Hollywood’s original studios and the entertainment landscape.
Redstone and her family agreed to part with their entertainment holdings, National Amusements Inc., and controlling Paramount shares. The family’s shaky finances were a catalyst for the sale. Redstone has borrowed heavily to meet debt obligations, including a $186-million term loan from Larry Ellison last year. The family is waiting for the cash from the sale of Paramount and National Amusements to the Ellisons and RedBird, a private equity firm.
But an unexpected blunder altered the deal’s course.
Last fall, “60 Minutes” invited Trump and Harris to participate in preelection interviews. Trump agreed, then backed out. CBS News went forward with a Harris sit-down.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris talks to “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker.
(CBS News)
Correspondent Bill Whitaker asked Harris about the Biden administration’s rocky relations with Israel’s prime minister. Producers used different portions of her answer on two programs: a convoluted response on CBS’ Sunday morning show “Face the Nation,” and a more succinct part on “60 Minutes.”
Trump and his supporters zeroed in on the discrepancy. They accused CBS of doctoring the interview. CBS News denied the allegation, saying the edits were routine.
Days before the election, Trump sued in Amarillo, Texas, ensuring the case would be overseen by a Trump-appointed judge.
His lawsuit alleged the “60 Minutes” edits amounted to election interference — “malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public,” in the suit’s words.
President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
(Bloomberg)
1st Amendment experts said the case had no merit; some figured it was a campaign stunt.
Days later, Shell, the RedBird executive who will become Paramount’s president should Skydance take over, held a conference call with top CBS executives. Shell suggested “60 Minutes” release the full Harris interview transcript in a bid for transparency, according to people familiar with the matter.
News executives refused, drawing a clear division between some high-level Paramount executives and Ellison’s team.
Those Paramount executives have bristled over Shell’s involvement, including a comment he reportedly made to McMahon late last year, stating the company eventually would have to settle. Skydance has said it has an agreement with Paramount that gives Ellison and Shell the ability to give input on key business issues — even before acquiring Paramount.
A spokesperson for Shell declined to comment.
The role of Shell, ousted from his previous role running NBCUniversal after acknowledging an inappropriate relationship with an underling, has been controversial. Representatives for the creators of “South Park” have accused him of overstepping his authority and meddling with a protracted negotiation over their overall deal and streaming rights to the long-running cartoon. A representative for Shell denied that accusation.
Trump had scored previous victories over media organizations. In December, the Walt Disney Co. agreed to pay him $16 million, including $1 million for his attorney fees, to end a dispute stemming from ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate description of Trump’s liability in a civil court case. Press advocates howled.
Paramount held firm. But it failed to get Trump’s case dismissed or moved to a court in New York, where CBS and “60 Minutes” are based.
So the company was in a box. Its sale to Skydance requires the approval of the Federal Communications Commission to transfer CBS TV station licenses to the Ellisons, and that consent has been elusive.
In one of his first moves as FCC chairman, Trump appointee Brendan Carr launched an inquiry into whether CBS’ edits of the Harris interview rose to the level of news distortion — the crux of Trump’s lawsuit.
In February, Carr demanded CBS release a raw transcript of the Harris interview and the unedited footage. CBS complied; the material showed Harris had been accurately quoted.
The Texas judge ordered Paramount and Trump’s lawyers into mediation. Talks began April 30.
That weekend, “60 Minutes” ran its report on Trump and the law firms, riling Redstone and others. The Trump team and Paramount were already far apart, the sources said.
Soon, CBS News and Stations President Wendy McMahon was forced out. Knowledgeable sources attributed her departure to months of strife and persistent criticism from Redstone, who serves as Paramount’s chair. McMahon also made missteps, including overseeing an unsuccessful reboot of “CBS Evening News.”
The day McMahon was ousted, left-leaning U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) lobbed a salvo at Redstone. In a May 19 letter, they warned that Paramount board members risked possible bribery charges if they paid Trump to settle the lawsuit as a way to win FCC approval for the Skydance deal.
By early June, Redstone and the Ellison team were getting restless.
Emanuel, the agent, stepped in to help get the dealmaking back on track, people familiar with the matter said. Emanuel is Trump’s former talent agent and one of Ellison’s closest allies.
On June 7, Ellison met briefly with Trump at a UFC event in New Jersey. Emanuel is executive chairman of the WME Group and chief executive of UFC’s parent company, TKO.
According to a source, Emanuel associate Dana White, the Trump-supporting UFC chief executive, helped facilitate the Ellison meeting with the president, which occurred steps away from the fighters’ octagon.
People close to Ellison and Emanuel declined to discuss Ellison’s interactions with the president. Representatives of Skydance, Redstone and Emanuel declined to comment for this story.
Finally, a breakthrough came when Trump offered support for Ellison and the Skydance deal, though he continued to blast Harris and CBS News.
Meanwhile, the clock was ticking. Redstone and others wanted the board to handle the settlement before the shareholder meeting, when one director stepped down, and three new members joined the board.
Redstone recused herself from voting but made her wishes known.
The settlement was finally reached about 10 hours before the Paramount board switched.
One person close to the legal effort said the agreement “got over the finish line” due to a sweetener for Trump. His team anticipates that Paramount networks eventually will run millions of dollars worth of free commercials, or public service announcements, in support of Trump causes, including combating antisemitism and increasing border security.
Paramount denied this.
“Paramount’s settlement with President Trump does not include PSAs,” the company said in a statement. “Paramount has no knowledge of any promises or commitments made to President Trump other than those set forth in the settlement proposed by the mediator and accepted by the parties.”
Skydance declined to comment. Emanuel did not respond to messages.
The settlement does contain another provision championed by Trump.“60 Minutes” will release transcripts of interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after those interviews air, “subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns,” Paramount said.
1st Amendment advocates were discouraged by the deal. So were Trump’s enemies, including the senators who had vowed to investigate the deal for bribery.
Paramount’s move to “settle a bogus lawsuit with President Trump over a 60 Minutes report he did not like is an extremely dangerous precedent,” Sanders, the U.S. senator, said in a statement. “Paramount’s decision will only embolden Trump to continue attacking, suing and intimidating the media.”
President Trump has endorsed David Ellison’s takeover of Paramount Global — an $8-billion merger that has been complicated by his $20-billion lawsuit over CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
On Wednesday, Trump was asked about the hold-up in the federal review of Skydance’s takeover of the storied entertainment company. The question came as reporters clustered around the president on the White House lawn to watch the installation of a flagpole.
The Paramount-Skydance deal has been pending at the Federal Communications Commission since late last fall.
Trump said he hoped the deal goes through.
“Ellison is great. He’ll do a great job with it,” Trump said.
Then he appeared to connect the merger-review delay to his lawsuit against CBS and its parent Paramount over last fall’s “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump has maintained since last October that the Harris interview was edited to burnish her chances in the November election. CBS has denied the allegations, saying the edits were routine. The raw footage showed Harris was accurately quoted, but Trump’s team said he suffered “mental anguish” from the broadcast.
“They interviewed Kamala. Her answer was horrendous,” Trump said Wednesday. “I would say it was election-threatening. I would say election-threatening because it was so incompetent.”
1st Amendment experts have called Trump’s case frivolous, but Paramount wants to avoid waging an extensive legal fight. Paramount’s leaders have pursued a settlement to help clear a path for the company’s sale to Skydance — a deal that needs the approval of the FCC.
The mediation process to resolve the lawsuit, filed in a Texas court, has become protracted.
“They are working on a settlement,” Trump said Wednesday. He mentioned that two high-level CBS executives — the head of CBS News and the executive producer of “60 Minutes” — had abruptly departed as the merger review dragged on.
“They’re all getting fired,” he said.
Late last week, Trump’s legal team filed court documents asking for a deadline extension in the discovery process, disclosing the two sides were working to reach a resolution.
Earlier this month, Ellison met Trump briefly while the two men were sitting ringside at a UFC fight in New Jersey, according to video footage shared online. Skydance declined to discuss Ellison’s interaction with Trump.
It marked the second time this year that Ellison chatted with the president at a UFC match. The first was in April.
It’s been nearly a year since Paramount’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone and fellow Paramount directors approved the two-phased $8-billion deal that will hand the company to the son of tech billionaire Larry Ellison, who is a Trump supporter. The deal will also see the Ellison family buy the Redstone investment vehicle, National Amusements Inc.
Santa Monica-based Skydance intends to consolidate the company that boasts the Melrose Avenue Paramount film studio, Paramount+ streaming service, CBS and cable channels including Comedy Central, Showtime and BET.
Skydance operations and personnel will be folded into Paramount.
The deal faces one final regulatory hurdle: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s consent to transfer 29 CBS television station licenses to the Ellisons from the Redstones. This week, the Senate approved Trump’s second Republican appointment to the panel, Olivia Trusty.
One fateful October decision to trim two convoluted sentences from a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris has snowballed into a full-blown corporate crisis for CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global, and its controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone.
President Trump’s $20-billion lawsuit — claiming “60 Minutes” producers deceptively manipulated the Harris interview to make her look smarter — has festered, clouding the future of Paramount and the company’s hoped-for $8-billion sale to David Ellison’s Skydance Media.
The dispute over the edits has sparked massive unrest within the company, prompted high-level departures and triggered a Federal Communications Commission examination of alleged news bias. The FCC’s review of the Skydance deal has become bogged down, according to people familiar with the matter who weren’t authorized to comment.
The agency, chaired by a Trump appointee, must approve the transfer of CBS television station licenses to the Ellison family for the deal to advance.
A lawsuit resolution, through court-ordered mediation, remains out of reach. And last week, three Democratic U.S. senators raised the stakes by suggesting, in a letter to Redstone, that a Trump settlement could be considered an illegal payoff.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) warned in their letter that any payment to Trump to gain favorable treatment by the FCC could violate federal anti-bribery laws. Paramount’s dealings with Trump “raises serious concerns of corruption and improper conduct,” the senators wrote.
“Under the federal bribery statute, it is illegal to corruptly give anything of value to public officials to influence an official act,” the senators said.
President Trump during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House.
(Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
Redstone is desperate for the Paramount-Skydance deal to go through.
Her family’s holding company is cratering under a mountain of debt. Paramount’s sale to the Ellison family would provide the clan $2.4 billion for their preferred shares — proceeds that would allow the Redstones to pay their nearly $600 million in debt — and remain billionaires.
Paramount, Skydance and a spokesperson for Redstone declined to comment.
While recusing herself from granular and final decision-making, Redstone has made it clear that she wants Paramount to settle with Trump, rather than wage an ongoing beef with the sitting president, according to people familiar with the matter but not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.
Figuring a way out of the dispute has divided the company, according to insiders.
For CBS News professionals, apologizing to Trump over routine edits of a lengthy interview is a red line. Tensions have spilled into public view.
Redstone has been cast as the villain. The Drudge Report, created by journalist Matt Drudge, who got his start at CBS in Los Angeles, last month published a photo of 71-year-old heiress, identifying her in all caps as “The woman who destroyed CBS News.”
Two top CBS News executives have resigned. Both refused to apologize to Trump as part of any settlement, the knowledgeable sources said.
Most CBS journalists and 1st Amendment experts see Trump’s lawsuit a shakedown, one seemingly designed to exploit Paramount’s vulnerability because it needs the government’s approval for the Skydance deal.
“Settling such a case for anything of substance would thus compromise 1st Amendment principles today and the broad notion of freedom of the press in the future,” prominent press freedom lawyer Floyd Abrams said.
Paramount has stressed that it sees the Trump lawsuit and the FCC review of the Skydance deal as separate. “We will abide by the legal process to defend our case,” a Paramount spokesperson said.
But “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley connected the two for viewers during an extraordinary April broadcast, in which he rebuked Paramount management on air at the end of the program. That, according to sources, angered some of Paramount’s leaders.
While “60 Minutes” has received additional corporate oversight, some insiders pointed to Pelley’s acknowledgment that “none of our stories have been blocked.”
All the high-level scrutiny has put Paramount and Redstone in a box, and the Skydance deal looks less certain than it did months ago.
“Who’s going to sign that settlement, knowing that you could be accused of paying a bribe?” asked one person close to Paramount.
Paramount Global’s path to peril began long before the infamous “60 Minutes” edits. The company was diminished by management turmoil and years of cost-cutting, which would eventually force Redstone to find a buyer for one of Hollywood’s most storied studios.
Should New York-based Paramount, which also owns Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and the famed Melrose Avenue movie studio, fail to complete its sale to Skydance by its October deadline, the deal could collapse.
Paramount then would owe $400 million to Skydance as a breakup fee, putting the company in further dire financial straits. Skydance and its investor RedBird Capital Partners have agreed, once they take over, to inject $1.5 billion into Paramount, helping it pay down some debt.
Redstone would also be on the hook to repay her financiers. Two years ago, a Chicago banker rescued the Redstone family investment firm, National Amusements Inc., with a $125-million equity investment.
The family’s finances were strained after Paramount cut its dividend to shareholders that spring during the Hollywood writers’ strike. The family’s dire financial situation was a leading impetus for Paramount’s sale.
If the deal fell through, Redstone would also have to repay a $186-million loan from tech mogul Larry Ellison. The billionaire Oracle co-founder and father of David Ellison extended the loan so National Amusements could make a looming debt payment.
National Amusements holds 77% of Paramount’s controlling shares, giving the Redstone family enormous sway over Paramount management.
Paramount Chairwoman Shari Redstone in 2023 in New York.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
Critics privately note Redstone’s role in setting up the company for the current drama. It took nearly a year for Redstone and Paramount’s special board committee to negotiate a deal with Skydance. The independent directors spent months searching for an alternate buyer, adding to the delays that now haunt both sides.
Had the parties reached agreement sooner, the companies could have asked the FCC for approval earlier last year during the less hostile Biden administration.
Instead, weeks were spent haggling over various demands, including having Skydance indemnify Redstone and her family against shareholder lawsuits. In the end, the Ellisons also agreed to help Redstone pay for her New York apartment and private jet after the deal closes, according to the knowledgeable people.
Paramount petitioned the FCC for review in September.
By that time, political environment was caustic for mainstream media companies. Conservatives were upset over ABC News’ handling of the Sept. 10 debate between Trump and Harris after ABC anchors fact-checked Trump in real time, including pushing back on his false claim that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating pets.
Trump reportedly backed out of a “60 Minutes” appearance — long a traditional stop for presidential candidates — because CBS intended to fact-check his remarks. Conservatives viewed such formats as a double standard and as an example of how news bias has seeped into major networks’ coverage of Republicans.
“This was an issue we were already sensitive to and focused on,” said Daniel Suhr, president of the conservative Center for American Rights legal group, which filed an FCC complaint against Walt Disney Co.’s ABC after the debate.
Redstone, who had previously urged news executives to bring more balance to CBS’ coverage, was livid after managers scolded “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil for his sharp questioning of author Ta-Nehisi Coates about Israel during an interview segment. Coates’ book, “The Message,” compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Jim Crow South in the U.S.
Redstone, who is Jewish and has focused her philanthropy on battling antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, publicly rebuked CBS News managers for their treatment of Dokoupil.
The controversial exchange in the Harris “60 Minutes” interview also happened to concern Israel.
Harris gave a long-winded three-sentence response.
CBS broadcast the convoluted first sentence on its Sunday public affairs show, “Face the Nation,” on Oct. 6. The following night — the anniversary of the Hamas attacks — “60 Minutes” aired only her most forceful and succinct third sentence: “We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”
Conservatives zeroed in.
“CBS created this mess for itself. … The conservative ecosystem was outraged when they saw the two different clips because it vindicated everything,” Suhr said. “Folks had always believed the media was selectively manipulating interviews like that.”
Journalists routinely cut extraneous words to provide clear and compact soundbites for audiences. CBS released a statement saying that it had not doctored the interview. Rather, news producers said they trimmed Harris’ response to cover more ground during the broadcast.
Internally, CBS debated whether to release the full transcript to quell the furor — but it stopped short at first. Some people close to the company have been particularly critical of CBS for not immediately releasing the unedited video.
One of Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s first moves was to revive a separate news distortion complaint against “60 Minutes,” which Suhr had filed shortly after the broadcast. The matter had been dismissed by the previous Biden-appointed chair.
“It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward,” McMahon told her staff in a note last week.
Insiders note other McMahon decisions, including the introduction of a new “CBS Evening News” format, which has led to plummeting ratings, as factors in her fall. McMahon could not be reached for comment.
Redstone and others hope the mediation with Trump’s attorneys will produce a truce.
But several questions remain: What will it take for Paramount to appease the president? And could the company’s leaders be prosecuted if they pay the president a multimillion-dollar settlement?
In “normal times,” officials might be alarmed by a president’s demand for a big check, said Michael C. Dorf, a Cornell Law School professor.
“These are not normal times, however, so the president will likely be able to get away with soliciting a bribe from Paramount, just as he is getting away with extortion of law firms and universities,” Dorf said.
Staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.
