Paramount Network president Kevin Kay will leave his position in the latest Viacom executive shakeup.

Kent Alterman will add oversight of the Paramount Network as president of Viacom’s Comedy Central, Paramount Network and TV Land Group, the company announced Thursday.

In another move, MTV, VH1 and Logo president Chris McCarthy will add day-to-day operations of CMT to his duties, according to Viacom. Alterman and McCarthy will continue to report to CEO Bob Bakish.

“These changes mark the next step in the ongoing evolution of our company as we continue to ensure we’re making the most of our great assets and resources, and operating as nimbly and efficiently as we can,” said Bakish in a statement. “Kent and Chris have been driving forces behind Viacom’s flagship strategy, re-energizing and growing two of our most iconic brands, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.”

During his tenure at Viacom, Kay oversaw the launch of several Nickelodeon hits such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Kenan & Kel. At Spike, Kay launched The Ultimate Fighter and Lip Sync Battle before overseeing the transition of the network from Spike to the Paramount Network this past January.

“Over the course of his career at Viacom, Kevin’s creative vision and gift for telling great stories have made a lasting impact,” Bakish said in a statement. “Thanks to the efforts of Kevin and his team, we have successfully established Paramount Network as a home for premium content, and TV Land and CMT continue to be dominant forces in the audiences they serve. I’m so grateful for the many contributions they have made in evolving and strengthening these world-class brands for their next chapter.”

RELATED: Viacom Taps Brian Robbins as Nickelodeon President 

The announcement comes five months after BET chairman and CEO Debra Lee stepped down and nearly a month after Paramount Players President Brian Robbins was named as president of Nickelodeon, replacing former Nickelodeon president Cyma Zarghami who left the company in June.

RELATED: Debra Lee To Step Down as Chairman and CEO of BET 

New Comedy Central president Kent Alterman, who earlier this month took over for departing network head Michele Ganeless, inherits a network that has struggled of late from a ratings perspective but is being looked upon by Viacom CEO Philipe Duaman to help spur the company’s financial fortunes.

Alterman recently spoke to Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead to discuss the network’s brand, its appeal to millennials and the struggles of its late-night franchises The Daily Show With Trevor Noah and The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore.

Related:MCN Original Video: Kent Alterman discusses the evolution of "The Daily Show" under Trevor Noah

MCN: How would you define the Comedy Central brand?

Kent Alterman: I’ll start by how our audience defines it, which is that it’s the No. 1 brand in comedy across all platforms. For me, what unifies all of our talent and content that we put out there is that they bring a very distinct point of view and voice to what they do that generally shares some degree of relevance, intelligence and an ability to reflect the world back at our audience in a way that gives them a break from the world.

MCN: You’re coming in at a time when the network’s ratings have been declining for some time. How do you view the network’s ratings performances and what can be done to curtail viewership declines?

KA: The entire industry is facing the same challenges, especially in reaching our young millennial audience. Viewing behaviors are changing, so we’re pursuing dual tracks.

We’re tending to the linear ratings – our audience consumes original content, and reruns don’t mean so much anymore, so we’re looking at ways to have more and better content.

We’re also making sure that we not only make our content available on all platforms, but also that we’re creating original content that is conceived and executed with these different platforms in mind so that it feels more organic. We were the only entertainment channel to be part of Snapchat Discover and we’ve been doubling down on how much original content we’ve been creating for that platform. It also affords us a development pipeline in the sense of making more bets with emerging talent and having more ways to working with talent in general on different platforms so that we can open up the aperture of our talent development.

MCN: Having said that, what would you consider to be the network’s core shows?

KA: The good news for us is that we’ve been having this great run of shows like South Park, Tosh 2.0 and The Daily Show, which has been an institution. We don’t have Jon [Stewart] but we’re bullish on Trevor. The Daily Show under Trevor Noah is the No. 1 late night show with male millennials and second overall after [The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy] Fallon. It’s been experiencing several months of repeated growth, so all the signs are pointing the right way, and creatively Trevor is taking the ball and running with it – we’re really pleased with his evolution.

There are other shows that are incredibly popular including Broad City, Inside Amy Schumer, Drunk History, Another Period,Nikki Glazer and so on. Ultimately what we feel gratified by is that in the last several years we’ve had a great run in introducing new talent, and they are all resonating with our audience.

MCN: You mentioned The Daily Show, and obviously a lot has been written about the show’s declining ratings as well as those of The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore since Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert left the respective shows. From your perspective, how have those shows performed with their new hosts and what if anything can be done to get ratings for the shows back to prior levels?

KA:  I think you have to look at a few things. It’s not like we replaced those shows at a time when there was stability in the marketplace of our business. It coincided with a period of incredible disruption in our business, and so its almost an unfair comparison; its not apples to apples. Even if you look at our late shows now and you include all the platforms where people are watching complete episodes – whether its on our website or our app or Hulu – the numbers are really significant, so it’s a tough comparison. What we care about the most is our fans and how [the shows] are resonating with our fans, and we try to keep our eye on that ball.

MCN: What are the biggest challenges the network is facing today?

KA: We’re living in a very tumultuous, disruptive time in our industry, and so I think we’re all facing the same challenges. No one knows how it's all going to settle out, and for the most part we try to keep our eye on what’s most important, which is our talent and our content. No matter what changes come in our industry, the thing that will never change is the importance of having content that resonates for our audience.

MCN: You mentioned programming for multiple platforms. How much does the digital platform influence the content development and distribution decisions you have to make?

KA: We’re trying to be very holistic about development and not so much separate linear with multiplatform distribution, but just continue to serve all masters simultaneously. We don’t just produce our content and then chop it up and distribute it on other platforms. We’re really expanding our aperture to work with different people and develop content that is targeted to different platforms because, ultimately, we are led more than anything else by our audience, and our audience is consuming content in different ways on different platforms, so we want to be able to meet them where they are.

Comedy Central has confirmed that network president Michele Ganeless is leaving the network, and original programming president Kent Alterman will step into that role effective immediately.

David Bernath, Comedy Central’s executive VP of programming and multiplatform strategy, has been promoted to general manager. Ganeless will remain on board as an adviser until September.

News of Ganeless' departure leaked a day ahead of the announcement, with some reports tying her departure to the network's falling ratings and comments Viacom CEO Philipe Dauman made recently about a pending revival at Comedy Central.

A network spokesman, however, said the decision "was 100% Michele's choice."

"The coverage has been somewhat inaccurate," he said. "Her contract was up this year, and she made the decision not to stay and to move on to the next chapter in her career."

Ganeless, who was part of the team that launched the network in 1991, and Doug Herzog, president of Viacom Media Networks, Music and Entertainment, officially announced the change Tuesday morning (May 10).

"It has been ... an absolute privilege to help build the cultural force that is Comedy Central today," Ganeless said. "The deep connection I have to it and to so many of my colleagues, especially my dear friend and mentor Doug [Herzog], made this decision incredibly difficult. But after considerable thought, I have decided that the time is right to move on and challenge myself in new ways.”

Ganeless joined Viacom in 1990 and, except for a three-year stint at USA Network (2001-04), has remained there. She became network GM on her return in 2004 and was promoted to network president as well in 2007.

Comedy Central credited Ganeless with steering the network from a linear channel to a multiplatform brand that last year won a network-record eight Emmy Awards (from a total of 26 nominations).

Alterman, who will remain based in Santa Monica, Calif., will report to Herzog; Bernath, based in New York, will report to Alterman.

The new network president, who Comedy Central said was "a key voice in selecting Trevor Noah as the new host of The Daily Show and launching The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore, had been named original programming president in 2013, three years after rejoining the network in 2010 as head of prgramming and production. He had previously spent four years in development at Comedy Central (1996-2000).

Since 2010, Comedy Central said, Alterman has more than doubled the network's original series, creating and developing hit franchises including Emmy Award-winning series Inside Amy Schumer, @midnight with Chris Hardwick, Drunk History, the Emmy-nominated Key & Peele, Broad City and Workaholics, among others.

New Daily Show host Trevor Noah says he will bring a different perspective to the late night show, but will not look to make a major overhaul.

Noah, who spoke during Comedy Central’s Television Critics Association press tour session Wednesday (July 29), said he will provide a different slant to stories than his predecessor, Jon Stewart, when he takes over for the longtime Daily Show host, but will not change the focus of the show.

The biracial 31-year old South African comedian said he draws his opinions from his life’s experiences, and perspectives will come through during the show, but he doesn’t plan to make any major changes to the look or the set.

“The way we tackle stories will be different,” Noah said.  “I still want the show to be recognized as The Daily Show.”

Kent Alterman, president of original programming for Comedy Central, told Multichannel News, “He is going to bring his point of view, but not imposing it in some way, but meshing it into the creative staff.”

Alterman said during the panel that the network “will be forever in debt” to Stewart for his stewardship of The Daily Show.

Comedy Central has hired Sarah Babineau as the new VP Original Programming and Development, Kent Alterman, President, Content Development and Original Programming announced today. 

Babineau will report to Alterman starting in December, where she will be overseeing east coast-based Comedy Central original series and pilots.

As a development and programming executive at Amazon Studios since 2012, Babineau helped launch Amazon into original comedy with her work on shows, Transparent, Alpha House and more.

She began her film career as an assistant editor, as well as an assistant to the director and has produced a number of short films over the years, including La Rosa Y El Gato and Oh Baby, I Love You.