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Grant Gish has not even served as head of adult entertainment for ViacomCBS’ youth and entertainment group, and already has a task: to build the “South Park” franchise with Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
ViacomCBS named Gish as its new senior vice president of adult entertainment on Wednesday. Gish was vice president of comedy and animation at Disney’s Marvel Studios and will not begin on ViacomCBS until August 31. Although he has not yet met Stone or Parker, his bosses need him to paint with the program’s creators to make new ones. The films and specials of “South Park” have been combined with special occasions to develop a new strategy for the company: to turn internal intellectual assets into new hits.
“Whenever I’m doing something new, and I can move from a new taste to a new tone to a new voice from an express writer, I think it can work,” Gish said in an exclusive interview with CNBC. “An animation audience is unique to anything. That’s what “The Simpsons” and “South Park” have done prominently. So I need to see a little bit of everything, even if a big part will be so it has been tested with brands that other people know.”
ViacomCBS has had conversations with Stone and Parker about a number of films and special concepts and hopes to finalize plans next year, according to a user close to the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are private. As Stone and Parker continue to create more episodes of “South Park” for Comedy Central, WarnerMedia’s HBO Max has paid Viacom about $500 million to fire episodes over the next few years. The agreement was reached before Viacom and CBS merged and expand cbS All Access into a much larger streaming service. When the “South Park” license agreement expires, ViacomCBS may host the series and all new and special videos made in the coming years on its own streaming service.
Gish will get a small series of exhibits of old hits that are dusted for a new audience. The company already agreed to make “Jodie”, a derivative of the 1990s MTV cult harvest “Daria”, with a “Beavis and Butt-Head” revived through original author Mike Judge. Comedy Central also announced Wednesday a “reimagining” of “The Ren – Stimpy Show”, moving the series of its Nickelodeon roots in the 1990s to the adult comedy network.
The strategy is consistent with ViacomCBS’ “own brand” streaming strategy, which will highlight Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV and BET on their current subscription service CBS All Access. ViacomCBS plans to rename the service before officially relaunching it in early 2021. The company has already announced that a new film “SpongeBob SquarePants” will debut with the launch of the service, following the theme of building existing franchises.
ViacomCBS hired Gish after seeing his paintings at Marvel and Fox, where he helped expand “Bob’s Burgers” and oversaw “American Dad”. Marvel has created videos and TV screens on previous characters, such as Black Panther, to create popular franchises. ViacomCBS hopes that Gish can do the same with his own intellectual property, which ruled pop culture in the 1990s and early 2000s, but has lost popularity in the last 15 to 20 years.
“The purpose of what we’re doing is to release the price of those screens and reinvent them for a whole new generation,” said Chris McCarthy, president of ViacomCBS’ entertainment and youth brands. “Beavis and Butthead” has a 93% notoriety. In this busy landscape, having an intellectual asset that enthuses other people attracts that audience. “
Gish’s challenge will be that “Beavis and Butthead” and “Jodie” communicate with young audiences in the same way they connected with Generation X members.
“These are screens I grew up on,” Gish said. “Taking those brands and creating new ones by 2021, 2022, or locating and creating new ones for Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, again, the networks I grew up on, is just a wonderful opportunity.”
ViacomCBS publishes its quarterly effects on Thursday.
WATCH: ‘South Park’ banned in China after mocking censorship
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