Susan Zirinsky is back in a job where she can do one of her favorite things: tell a few stories. For decades, Zirinsky, who left her role as president of CBS News last year, had big tales to relate…
, an independent production unit that she expects to launch documentary films and series for a range of ViacomCBS properties as well as outside parties. “I’m not a sliver of the network, or producing just for the inside,” she tellsHer first series, for the streaming-video hub Paramount Plus, debuts Thursday. “Indivisible: Healing Hate” is a six-part documentary series that examines the rise of domestic terror and extremism in the U.S.
Zirinsky emphasizes her interest in producing projects for parties that are not part of her corporate parent. “There is a great tableau outside in the SVOD world,” she says. “We want to be considered a studio that produces for multiple partners.” Many of the nation’s biggest news entities are getting involved in creating non-fiction programming. The New York Times is working with Disney’s FX, for example, and NBC News and MSNBC have both ramped up documentary production in recent months. CNN already has a robust division that has acquired or co-produced documentaries about Linda Ronstadt and Glen Campbell, among others.