Warner Bros. Discovery: Reality TV Execs Move Front & Center As Post-Merger Leadership Structure Emerges

deadline.com:

As Discovery and WarnerMedia are set to close their $43B merger later this week, the attention has been focused mainly on the deal’s ramifications for WarnerMedia’s movie and scripted television businesses.

There’s been much industry chatter about the importance of Casey Bloys’ scripted television empire and whether Toby Emmerich continues to oversee The Batman film studio.The pair, alongside Warner Bros.

TV boss Channing Dungey, are expected to report directly to David Zaslav under the company’s new structure, which is set to be unveiled shortly.However, as high-profile these areas are, they also are additive to Discovery’s business, which is only peripherally involved in scripted TV via the company’s venture with Oprah Winfrey OWN.

Meanwhile, it is unscripted television where the two merging companies have the biggest overlap and where combining the assets will require consolidation.It has gone largely under the radar how Discovery, ostensibly a company led entirely by reality television and unscripted execs, will bring together the numerous nonscripted divisions and cable networks, fed largely by that non-fiction pipeline, across the two groups.Obviously, Discovery execs are keeping quiet until the deal closes, which is expected to come Friday.Kathleen Finch, who is currently Discovery’s Chief Lifestyle Brands Officer, where she oversees networks including HGTV and TLC, is expected to oversee the enlarged networks group, that will now include Turner networks including TNT, TBS and truTV as well as Cartoon Network, TCM, Adult Swim and Boomerang.Sources suggest that Finch, who took over that role in 2018 following Discovery’s acquisition of Scripps Network, could oversee all of the company’ linear networks, which