Paramount+'s Originals Boss Is Out as HBO Takes Over Its Shows

Jane Wiseman exits after 14 months, and HBO Max's Sarah Aubrey adds all Paramount+ programming to her job under Casey Bloys.

Jane Wiseman's goodbye note to her staff read like a highlight reel. In it, she said "Dutton Ranch" had the biggest premiere Paramount+ has ever had for an original series, and "Landman" Season 2 stayed on Nielsen's top-10 originals chart for 13 weeks in a row.

Records weren't enough to keep her job. Wiseman, executive vice president and head of originals at Paramount+ for 14 months, is leaving, Deadline reported in an exclusive Friday. Her duties go to HBO Max's Sarah Aubrey, who now reports to Casey Bloys, the HBO content chief who took over programming at both streamers when Paramount's purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery closed Oct. 6.

The new leadership team Bloys named in a memo to staff tells the rest. Every programming chief on it came from HBO or HBO Max, according to the memo Variety published in full. Francesca Orsi keeps drama, Amy Gravitt keeps comedy, and Glenn Whitehead, HBO's business affairs chief, becomes president and COO of HBO and Paramount+. Aubrey's new title is head of Paramount+, Max Originals and International Programming.

Bloys didn't rush it. According to Deadline, he spent a couple of weeks studying the Paramount+ operation and thought about keeping Wiseman on all or part of her shows, including Taylor Sheridan's 101 Studios slate, possibly reporting to Aubrey. He decided against it because it could have upset the even balance among Orsi, Aubrey and Gravitt, Deadline reported. Variety reported that Wiseman had signaled she was willing to stay.

The pecking order is easy to see. The Hollywood Reporter put HBO Max at about 140 million subscribers worldwide and Paramount+ at about 82 million. Bloys wrote that the two services will keep their own momentum "until we are ready to bring them together."

That also changes things for the people who pitch shows. Wiseman's note thanked her team for fighting for projects when other buyers were bidding and for deciding fast enough to keep creators confident. Bloys wrote that each team's job has to be clearly defined so writers and producers have "clarity on where different programming resides." Now that answer comes from his HBO team for both services.

Wiseman has seen an originals operation built from nothing before. She joined Netflix in 2014 as an early hire, Variety reported, and spent a decade there under Cindy Holland, helping launch "Ozark," "Russian Doll" and "BoJack Horseman." Holland later became her boss at Paramount+ and left on the eve of the merger, Deadline reported.

Netflix is shuffling its own top jobs. The week before, it cut about 1,000 jobs, roughly 6% of its staff, and replaced chief content officer Bela Bajaria with former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice, Anime News Network reported. Netflix once had its own deal for Warner Bros. Discovery, too, and walked away in February once Warner Bros. Discovery judged Paramount's hostile offer the stronger one. So in less than two weeks, two of the biggest streamers changed who decides what gets made.

Bloys thanked Wiseman in his memo, praised her development slate and said she'd offered to help with the handoff. Her first two scripted orders are already in production, Deadline reported: "Discretion," starring Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning, and "The Best of Us," with Jeremy Strong. "Clueless" with Alicia Silverstone, Viola Davis' "Ascent" and Anne Hathaway's "Fear Not" are still to come. They'll premiere under someone else. Wiseman's own sign-off: "There's a lot more on the runway."

Source: Deadline, retrieved October 24, 2026. Other sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, animenewsnetwork.com.