NBC Promotes Business Affairs Chief George

Managing Editor: Television@Variety_Cynthia
George Cheeks’ star is rising at NBC Entertainment.
The exec who oversees business affairs for the Peacock and the Universal Television production arm is taking on oversight of the network’s latenight franchises.
Latenight is a lucrative arena for the Peacock, which means that Cheeks’ promotion to exec VP of business operations and latenight is a sign of faith in the exec, who will continue to oversee biz affairs for the network and studio. Cheeks is based on the West Coast but will now spend more time in Gotham, the hub of NBC’s latenight activity.
Cheeks reports to NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt. Paul Telegdy, president of alternative and latenight programming, will also remain involved in latenight. The distinction in duties between Telegdy, who also reports to Greenblatt, and Cheeks is not entirely clear but the two are said to be primed to work collaboratively on the business that has been reinvigorated by Jimmy Fallon’s success as “Tonight Show” host.
Cheeks joined NBC as exec VP in 2012. He came to the Peacock after moving through a series of business and legal affairs posts at MTV Networks and Viacom since 2007.
With Cheeks’ promotion, NBC Broadcasting chairman Ted Harbert will step back from the work he has done during the past year to help get Fallon settled in to “Tonight Show” and to get Seth Meyers up and running as Fallon’s successor on “Late Night.”
The Gotham-based Harbert, who oversees advertising sales, the NBC O&Os, the domestic syndie arm and other business operations, was enlisted to help steer the Jay Leno-to-Fallon transition as “Tonight Show” initiated a major build-out of studio space in 30 Rock, among other issues tied to the host shuffle that took place last February.