TNT Sports Chief Luis Silberwasser Exits as $111 Billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery Merger Closes Tuesday

Luis Silberwasser told his staff in a memo Monday that he's leaving TNT Sports as the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery merger closes Tuesday, Oct. 6, according to CNBC's Alex Sherman, who obtained the note. CBS Sports president and CEO David Berson will take his place atop a newly combined global sports division overseeing every network, platform and territory under the merged company, which is adopting the Skydance name.

Silberwasser didn't frame this as a firing. In his memo, obtained separately by The Hollywood Reporter, he wrote that "today's TNT Sports is healthier and stronger than ever" and said he "fully supports the decision" to consolidate under Berson. He called the combined portfolio "one of the largest and most exciting" in sports media and said he'd help with the transition.

Berson is reportedly expected to report to George Cheeks, who was named co-chair and chief content officer of the combined company's television division Monday, according to Sports Media Watch. Berson has led CBS Sports since 2024, when he succeeded longtime chairman Sean McManus, and joined the division back in 2011 after a stint at ESPN.

A $111 Billion Deal, Nearly $80 Billion in Debt

The merger itself is a $111 billion transaction, according to Ground News and TheWrap. Once it closes, the newly combined Skydance will carry roughly $79 to $80 billion in net debt, according to CNBC and Sports Media Watch. Berson now has to decide which sports properties are worth keeping and which get shed to pay down that debt, CNBC reported.

The combined rights portfolio includes NFL Sunday afternoon games, the full NCAA men's March Madness tournament for the first time since CBS and Turner began sharing it in 2011, college football, the PGA Tour, the WNBA, MLB, the NHL, NASCAR, U.S. Soccer, the French Open, the Masters, UFC, and women's basketball league Unrivaled, according to The Hollywood Reporter and Awful Announcing.

Several of those deals are expiring soon. TNT Sports has pacts with MLB and the NHL nearing their end dates, Sports Media Watch reported. And the NFL holds a change-of-control provision it can activate within two years of the merger, with the league able to opt out of most of its media deals after the 2029 season. RedBird Capital founder and Paramount board member Gerry Cardinale has said the company would be better off waiting a few years before renegotiating with the NFL, according to Sports Media Watch.

Silberwasser's Four Years

Silberwasser joined TNT Sports, then called Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, in the summer of 2022 after running Univision Television Networks Group. His tenure was defined by one massive loss: the end of TNT's 36-to-40-year relationship with the NBA after the 2024-25 season, a split CNBC and Awful Announcing both flagged as the defining setback of his run.

He didn't just absorb the hit. Silberwasser licensed the rights to "Inside the NBA" to ESPN in exchange for a package of Big 12 games, and he added NASCAR, the French Open, the FIFA Club World Cup, Unrivaled, Big East basketball, the FIBA World Cup, and sublicensed College Football Playoff games, including a semifinal for the first time this year, according to Awful Announcing and Sports Media Watch. TNT Sports also retained a deal to operate NBA digital properties through the 2029-30 season as part of WBD's settlement with the league, per The Hollywood Reporter.

What's Unresolved

Berson's appointment had been expected since April, when Puck's John Ourand reported he was the "odds-on favorite" to run the combined group once the sports divisions merged, according to Awful Announcing. The formal announcement of his new title has not yet been made official. CNBC reported Skydance is expected to confirm Berson's role "soon," and a CBS spokesperson declined to comment when asked by CNBC. TheWrap reported CBS did not immediately respond to its own request for comment either.

The bigger unresolved question is which rights deals survive the debt-reduction push. With the NHL and MLB contracts nearing expiration and the NFL's opt-out window opening within two years, Berson's first major decisions as head of the combined sports group will likely determine how much of TNT's rebuilt post-NBA portfolio actually makes it into Skydance's long-term plans.