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 

There were only nine minutes of commercials in last week’s premiere of Waco, the first piece of high-profile, big-ticket programming on Viacom’s new Paramount Network.

The low advertising load — with half the normal number of breaks, and each break a bit shorter than usual — is part of the network’s attempt to simulate the experience viewers get on premium channels. There were no commercials until about 16 minutes into the episode, a big change for Viacom, which has been criticized for stuffing too many spots into shows on its networks to make up for declining ad revenue.

Kevin Kay, president of Paramount Network, CMT and TV Land, said he hoped viewers would notice the lack of ads. Just in case, before the first ad pod, which contained a one-minute trailer for a new movie from Paramount Pictures, the network announced that, “The world premiere of Waco is presented with limited commercial interruptions by the new film Annihilation.”

“I think the viewer will feel and understand that they saw something different,” Kay said. “I think if you’re a viewer of scripted premium and you see a trailer for a big feature, it doesn’t feel like [a commercial], with all due respect to all of our other sponsors.”

Paramount Network replaced Spike TV on Jan. 18, launching with a live edition of one of Spike’s higher-rated shows, Lip Sync Battle. Spike was struggling, with viewership among adults 18-49 down 24% during 2017. Paramount’s live Lip Sync Battle had the series’s highest rating since June 23, 2016.

The Waco premiere drew a 0.6 overnight rating and 1.1 million viewers to Paramount (more with the simulcast on CMT). Paramount called the performance “very encouraging” on a competitive night and expects the show to get a boost when delayed viewing is added in. Tinkering with ad formats is one way the Paramount Network aims to entice viewers and advertisers.

Related: Ratings Up in First Week for New Paramount Network

“We realized the viewers are used to not having to watch commercials on the [subscription video-on-demand] platforms for sure; HBO and Showtime as well,” Kay said. “But we’re still pay cable, and somebody’s got to pay the bills. These shows ain’t cheap. But one of the things we’re talking about is how do we change that viewing experience and make it more like a premium experience.”

Kay said future episodes of Waco would have a similarly low ad load, as will upcoming programs Heathers, Yellowstone and American Woman.

Those ’70s Ads
Another idea Paramount has for creating a premium environment involves having advertisers create 1970s-style commercials to air in American Woman, because the show is set in Beverly Hills in the ’70s.

“You’ll feel like you’re still in the ’70s when you’re in the commercial breaks,” Kay said. “We are out there selling and we’ve got a lot of interest.”

The network is also looking to have individual advertisers sponsor entire episodes.

“I think ideas like that are what we need to continue to refine,” Kay said. “But I think we’re off to a good start because we’ve gotten a lot of good feedback on these ideas and a lot of people want to work with us.”

Advertisers like the idea of a less-cluttered commercial environment.

“Giving consumers a positive viewing experience can only help the advertising efficacy,” Havas Media chief investment officer Jason Kanefsky said.

It’s an idea that other networks have put in place. Turner has cut the ad load on truTV and in original series on TNT and TBS. Also, NBC reduced the number of spots on Saturday Night Live. But the bigger question may be whether the TV business needs another network.

“In a world where [over-the-top] is becoming more important and smart televisions are allowing consumers to pick and choose shows, as opposed to picking and choosing networks, branding and rebranding networks doesn’t necessarily create success,” Kanefsky said.

The success of Paramount Network is a key part of Viacom CEO Bob Bakish’s strategy to turn around Viacom, which has been suffering from declining ratings, lower ad revenue and falling profit. Analysts have embraced Bakish’s plan to focus investment on a handful of flagship networks, including Paramount.

While the Spike TV rebranding didn’t work out for Viacom, Kagan senior analyst Derek Baine said the Paramount name is better-known. “Hopefully, the rebrand and a bigger programming budget will result in a more successful rebranding,” Baine said.

Kagan forecasts Paramount Network will generate $375.1 million in net ad sales in 2018, up 36% from Spike’s $276.2 million in 2017. “We are projecting ratings go from a 0.3 to a 0.4, which is not hard to do with a rebranding,” Baine said.

Kay said the Paramount Network doesn’t plan to cut ad loads on shows that are already on the air. But with the network ratcheting up its star power and shifting focus from men to attracting a broader audience, advertisers are already responding.

Spike’s air was filled with shows including Cops, as well as Impact Wrestling and Bellator MMA action, that scared off some content-sensitive advertisers.

“Cops was always a tough sell, wrestling was a tough sell. We’ve worked hard over the last month and a half to change that perception,” Kay said.

The network has cut back on those shows and added classic sitcoms including Friends and Two and a Half Men to its daytime lineup. “We’re seeing a lot of new sponsors interested in the Paramount Network,” said Kay. Procter & Gamble is advertising more, Sonic remains a big supporter and Delta Faucet has signed on.

Adding star power to its original programs might also help.

Kay said he recently watched the first cut of the first episode of Yellowstone.

“When Kevin Costner gets up on his horse and puts on the cowboy hat, that’s money,” he said.

Viacom has named Jennifer Zaldivar-Clark senior VP of talent for Paramount Network, which launches in January 2018.

Zaldivar-Clark will also continue to serve as SVP of talent and communications for Viacom’s TV Land.

Related: Executive Shuffle Continues at Viacom’s TVLand

She reports to Kevin Kay, president of Paramount Network, TV Land and CMT, with a dotted-line relationship to Frank Tanki, TV Land general manager.

“Jen has an innate ability to develop and maintain strong relationships with talent and the creative community,” Kay said. “She has significantly elevated the TV Land brand and expanded its footprint across the entertainment business in new and creative ways. Jen’s leadership will be instrumental to the success of Paramount Network as a premier destination for top-tier talent across the industry.”

Read Kay's staff memo about Zaldivar-Clark at broadcastingcable.com.

TV Land, one of the networks designated as non-core by new Viacom CEO Bob Bakish, has named Frank Tanki as general manager.

In Viacom’s recently revised structure, TV Land reports into Kevin Kay, president of Spike TV, a core Viacom network that will be undergoing a brand change to become the Paramount Network.

Since the restructuring, TV Land’s president of development and production Keith Cox was promoted to president of development and production for both Paramount and TV Land, while Sharon Levy, TV Land’s executive VP of original series, left the network.

Tanki most recently served as executive VP, brand marketing and creative for Spike.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Controversies surrounding race and the U.S. criminal justice system have spurred a national debate in homes and communities around the country over the past few years. Two new series debuting in the next few weeks will tackle some of those controversies head on.

Following critical acclaim for Netflix’s Ava DuVernay-produced documentary 13th, which focuses on race and mass incarceration in the country, Spike TV will take an unscripted look at the tragic life of Kalief Browder in a six-part documentary series premiering Wednesday, March 1.

Executive-produced by hip-hop entrepreneur Jay-Z, Time: The Kalief Browder Story follows the experiences of Browder (pictured), who in 2010, at 16, was arrested for stealing a backpack. He was never convicted of the alleged crime but nonetheless spent three years in Rikers Island prison in New York — a good portion of that time in solitary confinement. His case has stirred up calls for a reform of the city’s criminal justice system.

Whatever your opinion on whether the scales of justice are balanced for all, Spike TV president Kevin Kay said in an interview that the tragic circumstances surrounding Browder should be of interest.

“This is a hot topic in our society today, and I think people are thinking about this more than they were a couple of years ago,” he said. “I think the timing is right. It’s a story that needs to be told and Spike is in a unique position to tell it.”

Three weeks later (March 22) Fox will premiere a 10-episode scripted drama series, Shots Fired, examining the criminal-justice system in the aftermath of two racially charged shootings in a rural North Carolina town.

The series, starring Sanaa Lathan, Richard Dreyfuss, Helen Hunt and Stephan James, is “probably the most current show you’ll ever see,” according to Dreyfuss, who spoke at the Television Critics Association Winter Tour in January. Shots Fired touches upon the schisms between racial groups and local law enforcement that have made headlines and spurred protests around the country over the past few years — a fact the show’s creators weren’t afraid to explore.

“Going into it, we knew the story we wanted to tell; we knew what we wanted to deal with,” Shots Fired co-creator Gina Prince-Bythewood said at TCA. “It’s very easy for people to watch the news and see a piece about a shooting, and if you don’t identify with who’s on the screen, you turn it off. So we felt the best way to address this issue for us — and to get people who don’t normally go through this issue to understand — was to give them a way in and give them a way to understand.”

Spike TV tonight (March 13) will launch its monthly live boxing series as part of its Friday night block of combat sports programming.

Spike’s Premier Boxing Champions series will open with a doubleheader fight card featuring the Andre Berto-Josesito Lopez and Shawn Porter-Roberto Garcia bouts, according to Spike. The event follows NBC’s successful March 7 launch of the Al Haymon-produced Premier Boxing Champions series on the broadcast network.

Haymon’s Premier Boxing franchise also has deals to distribute boxing cards to CBS, Showtime and Bounce TV.

Spike TV president Kevin Kay said the addition of boxing to its Friday night lineup -- which already offers Bellator mixed martial arts events -- will help attract and retain young male viewers as the network looks to broaden its entertainment programming offerings  to bring in more female viewers.  

“It’s a really important place for us to keep (18-34 year old) guys and give them something that they’ve always counted on Spike for,” Kay said during a recent MCN One-On-One In 2 video interview.

To view the full interview click here.