Warner Bros. has named Channing Dungey as the chairman of its Television Group.
Dungey, who left Netflix earlier this month, replaces the outgoing Peter Roth as the group’s top executive. Roth is leaving the studio early next year, ending a more than two-decade tenure. Dungey will start early next year following Roth’s departure.
She joins the studio amid a major overhaul under WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar. The reorganization, which also saw the exits of Bob Greenblatt and Kevin Reilly, created a unified studios and networks group under Ann Sarnoff. Along with HBO programming president Casey Bloys, Sarnoff has oversight of all content development. Dungey will report directly to Sarnoff.
Susan Rovner, who had served as Warner Bros. TV president, also left the studio last month, to take a top programming role with NBCUniversal. Rovner had been seen as Roth’s likely successor.
“The Warner Bros. Television Group is the recognized industry leader in content creation and a true destination for talent based on its ability to produce across all genres and for all outlets,” Dungey said. “I’m thrilled to be joining the company at such a pivotal time in its history and look forward to working with my new colleagues at Warner Bros. and across the studios and networks group to build on the incredible work of my predecessor, Peter Roth. This is such an electric time in our industry, and we have so much opportunity available to us between Warner Bros.’ core businesses and HBO Max, I cannot wait to dive in.”
Warner Bros. marks Dungey’s third high-profile stop in the last handful of years. She served as chairman of ABC Entertainment from 2016-2018, before landing at Netflix as vice president of original content.
While at Netflix, Dungey helped to develop several series, including “Self Made” and “Away,” as well as Shonda Rhimes’ upcoming “Bridgerton” and the untitled Anna Delvey project. She also played a key role in Netflix landing “Game of Thrones” duo David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and managed many of the streaming service’s talent deals.
“This is a homecoming of sorts for Channing, who was a production executive at Warner Bros. early in her career, and we’re excited to have her rejoin the Studio,” Sarnoff said. “Channing is one of the most talented, visionary, creative and respected executives working in television today. She has impeccable taste, a breadth of experience covering all platforms and genres, incredible relationships across the creative community and a keen sense of what’s next and how best to get it to audiences. She’s a great choice to lead the Television Group as it continues to grow its production operations for HBO Max, while also maintaining its standing as the industry’s leading independent supplier of programming to all outlets.”