CBS All Access expands original content team, DeBevoise calls Star Trek a “major tentpole”

CBS All Access Original Series

CBS All Access has announced that it is expanding its original content team.

A piece from Deadline explains that Julie McNamara, Executive Vice President and Head of Original Content for CBS All Access, is growing the team in a move that signals CBS’s commitment to investing in the streaming service. Current VP of Original Content Danny Feldheim has been elevated to Senior Vice President, along with relative newcomer Jana Steele Helman, who joined the team in April. Ashley Whitaker joins the streaming service as Director of Original Content and will work alongside Director Eric Pertilla, who has been in his position since August 2018.

All the new executives come from accomplished backgrounds. Feldheim was one of the first hires for CBS’s original content team and has had a hand, along with Pertilla, in developing Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, among others. Helman joined CBS All Access earlier this year from Freeform, where she served as VP of Programming and Development. And Whitaker previously helped develop scripted content for Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network.

CBS Interactive President and COO Marc DeBevoise said the expansion was indicative of how much they are investing in new original content. He went on to explain their plans for volume: “We are going to have at least a show a month next year and at least one major tentpole in each quarter,” he said. “The two Star Treks (Discovery and Picard), The Stand, The Twilight Zone, The Good Fight, Why Women Kill.”

The CBS All Access original content team is responsible for nine original series to date, including Star Trek: Discovery, and there are another 14 on the way for 2020, including Star Trek: Picard.