David Nevins Named CEO of Peter Chernin’s North Road Company

Paramount Global vet David Nevins has been named CEO of Peter Chernin’s global content house The North Road Company, just as the company celebrates its first year of business.

Formerly chairman and CEO of Paramount Premium Group and chief creative officer of Paramount+ scripted series, Nevins will oversee North Road’s portfolio of brands, including scripted film and TV studio Chernin Entertainment, unscripted house Kinetic Content, nonfiction studio Words + Pictures, and a London-based international division.

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Chernin will continue to act as executive chairman of North Road, while Nevins works closely with an exec leadership team that includes Jenno Topping, Jan Frouman, Chris Coelen, Connor Schell and Darian Singer.

Launched in July 2022 off the success of Chernin’s flagship production house and the acquisition of Red Arrow Studios, Chernin Entertainment, North Road recently acquired Turkey-based film and TV company Karga Seven Pictures and took a stake in Peyton Manning’s sports content-focused Omaha Productions. In January, the company garnered $150 million in funding from Qatar Investment Authority, adding to the $500 million secured at launch from Providence Equity Partners and $300 million in debt financing via Apollo.

Most recently, Nevins was chief of Paramount Premium Group and Paramount+ scripted series, also overseeing BET and Paramount Television Studios, a role he expanded to after years of running Showtime Networks. He exited that role at the end of 2022 ahead of multiple restructuring moves made at Paramount.

While heading up Showtime, Nevins landed 244 primetime Emmy nominations for the premium cable network, launched its standalone OTT streaming service, which has since been combined with Paramount+, and produced series including “Homeland,” “Billions,” “Yellowjackets,” “Dexter: New Blood,” “Your Honor,” “The Chi,” “Twin Peaks,” “Ray Donovan,” “Shameless,” “The Affair,” Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Who is America” and “The Circus.”

Before shifting to Showtime, Nevins led CBS Entertainment. Previously, Nevins served as president of Imagine Television, overseeing titles including “Arrested Development,” “24,” “Friday Night Lights” and “Parenthood.” Prior to Imagine, he was a top development exec at Fox, Chernin’s old stomping grounds, and NBC.

“I first reached out to David the day he resigned from Paramount because I’ve always admired David,” Chernin told Variety. “It’s rare that someone of that talent, potentially, becomes available. What made me reach out to him was that the most important thing to us in building a company was putting together a group of the highest quality assets in the industry, capable of producing the highest quality content. And I just feel David is one of the top that you can count — certainly on less than one hand — creative executives in the business over the past couple of decades. And I was looking for someone to really come on and help me full time running this thing, because it’s gotten more complex. It was a unique opportunity, and I thought his creative abilities are unparalleled and I think he did a remarkably good strategic job at Showtime. I thought he was a unique talent, and I should grab him if I could.”

Nevins added: “I was really interested in doing something more entrepreneurial. After I left Paramount, people asked me, do you want to be a producer? Do you want to be an executive? And for me, the answer is yes. I’m very interested in the creative and very interested in the business. I think Peter and I really share a sense of big global opportunity right now. Also, I’m really attracted to the people who are already in the different companies, Jenno Topping at Chernin Entertainment and Chris Coelen at Kinetic and Connor Schell at Words + Pictures, I’ve worked with all three of them over the years and have a ton of respect. They’re all really the best at what they do. That was a big part of the attraction as well.”

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