Former WGN America President Matt Cherniss has joined the tech giant and will serve as a chief lieutenant to new co-heads of video programming Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg. His role is being described as chief creative/head of U.S. programming as Erlicht and Van Amburg eye a split of duties between domestic and international.
The president-GM of the cable network and Tribune Studios is leaving at the end of June. Gavin Harvey will serve as interim president of WGN America.
WGN America: Ditching Pilots, Spending Big
Matt Cherniss is selling more than simply a slate of TV shows. Since he took his current job as president and GM of WGN America and newly formed Tribune Studios in spring 2013, he also has had to sell a channel that, until now, had no distinguishable brand and is available in only 72 million homes. He talks about WGN’s marketing challenge, the perks of bypassing pilots and why he has needed to open the Tribune wallet as wide as he has.
In an effort to kick-start original television production, Tribune Co. has hired Matt Cherniss, a former Fox and Warner Bros. executive, as president of WGN America and head of a newly formed Tribune Studios.
Fox’s No.2 programming executive Matt Cherniss will be leaving the network and the TV business. He’s in negotiations with Warner Bros. for a job on the feature side.
