MTV, Comedy Central chief Doug Herzog is exiting Viacom

Viacom Inc.’s management shake-up continued Wednesday with another senior executive — Doug Herzog, president of the Music and Entertainment Group — announcing his departure.

Herzog was part of the executive team at MTV during its early years, and helped usher in the reality TV movement with such shows as “The Real World” and “Road Rules.” He spent much of his career molding scrappy Comedy Central into a cultural touchstone with “South Park,” “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” “The Colbert Report” and “Inside Amy Schumer.”

But Herzog’s exit had been expected. He has overseen the troubled MTV network group for nearly two years and failed to reverse its ratings slide. Viacom’s recently installed chief executive, Bob Bakish, has said that rebuilding MTV and Comedy Central were among his top priorities and that he intended to shake things up.

Viacom’s stock has tumbled nearly 50% in the last two years, and Wall Street has been worried that its all-important TV channels have lost relevance among younger viewers and pay-TV distributors who pay hefty affiliate fees to carry the channels.

Last week, Viacom’s controlling shareholders, the Sumner Redstone family, said they were no longer pursuing a merger of Viacom and CBS, which puts added pressure on Viacom’s management to turn around its struggling TV channels.

Herzog said he would leave Jan. 12. He is the latest stalwart to depart the New York media company.

“It all started innocently enough in 1984 when I was just 25. I arrived at the midtown MTV offices very early one September morning only to find the lobby completely dark,” Herzog said in an internal memo Wednesday to his staff. “Not one light on and not a soul there. Thankfully, Judy McGrath (former MTV chief) arrived soon after the lights went on, and showed me to my office.”

Only a few veteran Viacom leaders remain, including Bakish, who was named permanent CEO this month, Cyma Zarghami, president of Viacom’s Kids and Family Group, which includes Nickelodeon, and Brad Grey, chairman of Paramount Pictures.

Herzog’s departure completes MTV’s break with its past. After longtime MTV chief Van Toffler exited in early 2015 to start his own production company, Herzog was tasked with leading MTV, VH1 and Logo in addition to Spike and Comedy Central.

But some moves Herzog made, including tapping Sean Atkins as head of MTV, did not pan out. MTV’s ratings slumped, alarming investors. In late October, Atkins stepped down and was replaced by Chris McCarthy, who had spearheaded a ratings revival at VH1.

Meanwhile, corporate cost-cutting had taken a toll at Comedy Central. The channel lost a string of big names, including Stewart, Colbert, John Oliver and Samantha Bee. Colbert moved to CBS, Oliver went to HBO and Samantha Bee landed at TBS. A late night show with Larry Wilmore was canceled, but Stewart’s replacement, Trevor Noah, has slowly gained traction.

Herzog’s self-deprecating style and dry sense of humor made him a hit among his staff and top talent. He acknowledged that he wasn’t a typical corporate suit.

“I am just a camp counselor at heart. I tried to bring a little of that to the workplace every day,” he said in his email. “Lead the group, play to win and have fun doing it.”

His 25-year-career at Viacom (interrupted from 1998 to 2004 to work as entertainment president at Fox, then head of the USA Network) was marked by plucking talent from obscurity.

“We found Jon Stewart in an MTV conference room during a game show run-through, lost Dave Chappelle in South Africa and later found Trevor Noah there, we discovered Matt Stone and Trey Parker on VHS and Pauley Shore in Daytona Beach,” Herzog said in his farewell email.

“I was given a front row seat at the center of pop culture and an opportunity to redefine it a few times along the way,” he said. “I was surrounded by a seemingly endless universe of creative geniuses, rock stars, politicians, supermodels, heavyweight champs, comedians, street hustlers, and media moguls. And that was just one night at the Video Music Awards!”

meg.james@latimes.com

@MegJamesLAT