Report: NBCUniversal's George Cheeks Headed To ViacomCBS

George Cheeks, a top executive at Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, is headed to ViacomCBS Inc. in a senior role at CBS, where he could ultimately succeed Joe Ianniello as head of the network, reports The Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter.

George Cheeks

Cheeks, the vice chairman of NBCUniversal Content Studios, resigned from the Comcast Corp. company on Tuesday.  Cheeks is a former Viacom executive who held a senior role in its cable networks group for several years.

The talks with Cheeks and the potential departure of Ianniello came as a surprise, people familiar with the matter said. When CBS and Viacom announced the deal, executives at both companies said Ianniello would play a crucial role in the integration and leadership of the combined company.

If Mr. Ianniello were to leave, it would mark the most significant executive departure from ViacomCBS since Viacom merged with sister company CBS in December.

It is unclear when Mr. Cheeks would join ViacomCBS as his contract with NBCUniversal still has many months left on it.

In his current role at NBCUniversal, Cheeks supervised much of the operations of NBC’s television production business as well as late-night programming. He was second-in-command to Bonnie Hammer, the chairman of NBCUniversal Content Studios.

Before joining NBCUniversal, Cheeks spent 14 years at Viacom where he forged a relationship with Bob Bakish, the chief executive of ViacomCBS. He joined Viacom in 1998 as senior counsel for its MTV Networks cable unit and rose to the ranks to executive vice president before departing for NBCUniversal in 2012.