Jeff Shell is about to lead Paramount. He may have runway to make bold changes he couldn't at NBC

Jeff Shell is primed to take over as president of Paramount Global after its merger with Skydance Media is complete.

Shell developed a reputation at NBCUniversal for having big ideas and what one former coworker described as a "shoot first and aim later" mentality.

Shell may resurrect the idea of giving NBC 's 10 p.m. hour over to affiliates, merging with a rival and turning CNBC prime time into a Fox News facsimile.

The 10 p.m. hour on broadcast networks still serves as a time slot for scripted dramas.

Paramount Global co-CEO Shell is also likely to examine the content windowing strategy at Paramount .

Shell and Ellison have expressed their desire to partner Paramount+ with another streamer to add scale and content.

Shell pushed for NBCUniversal to put most of its cable programming on Peacock , including regional sports networks, or RSNs.

Shell wanted to combine some NBCUniversal cable networks to cut costs and push back on dwindling revenue.

Shell also had ideas that didn't come to fruition about changing programming on some of NBC 's cable networks.

One of Shell 's big decisions will be what to do with a handful of cable channels that have effectively turned into zombie networks.