Arrayed casually on a line of stools on a low stage at Paramount Global’s Times Square headquarters, new leadership of post-merger Paramount greeted a few dozen journalists and opened the floor, immediately bombarded with questions about Donald Trump’s PSAs (fact or fiction?), the CBS ombusdman, Late night TV, looming layoffs and the future of linear television as two of its largest rivals split in half.

Chairman-CEO David Ellison mostly skirted political questions but did say the company “will be a fierce defender of talent and always has been.” The merger closed only hours ago, he noted a number of times.

He was flanked by President Jeff Shell, Andy Gordon, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operating Officer Andy Gordon, George Cheeks, Chair of TV Media and Gerry Cardinale, founder

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