Skydance Sports Chief Jesse Sisgold Exits For RedBird Capital Role As Part Of George Cheeks Restructuring

Longtime Skydance Sports chief Jesse Sisgold is exiting his post and moving to an advisory role at company backer RedBird Capital.

Sisgold was formerly president and COO of Skydance when it was a boutique production shingle being scaled up by David Ellison. Now that Ellison is running a massive media entity after the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, an existing exec team will be put in charge of the largely unscripted roster Sisgold oversaw.

At RedBird, Sisgold will serve as a senior advisor across the company’s media and sports holdings. The investment firm’s CEO, Gerry Cardinale, is a Skydance board member and was a primary architect of the $110 billion Paramount-WBD merger.

Sisgold’s move was first disclosed by Ellison in a staff memo earlier Wednesday. It was referenced again this afternoon by George Cheeks, Skydance TV Co-Chair and Chief Content Officer. In a staff memo, Cheeks named his 10 top executives across the company’s studios business, entertainment, sports and news.

The new structure includes the creation of Skydance TV Studios, which will officially house Warner Bros. Television Group, run by Channing Dungey; CBS Studios, run by David Stapf; and Paramount Television Studios, run by Matt Thunell.

Skydance Sports Entertainment is also under the umbrella. Sisgold ran the unit, which had been known as Paramount Sports Entertainment. It had produced a number of documentary features and series, many via partnerships with the NFL and other leagues.

Along with ramping up sports, Sisgold was involved in a lot of fundraising efforts as Skydance grew. He joined the company in 2014.