Warner Bros Television is cutting more than a quarter of its workforce as part of its parent company’s drive to cut costs.
The studio is cutting 26% of personnel, a total of 125 positions, across scripted, unscripted and animation.
Deadline revealed Monday that cuts would likely come today and we revealed earlier that Warner Bros. TV was shutting down digital production arm Stage 13 and its Warner Bros Television Workshop – a key plank in finding and mentoring new and diverse talent.
These cuts come with a number of structural changes put in place by chairman Channing Dungey, particularly in unscripted and animation. She called the move “incredibly difficult” as she pointed to a “tumultuous time” in the industry (read her full memo to staff below).
The television studio is the latest arm of Warner Bros Discovery forced to make cuts in order to save at least $3 billion after the merger overseen by David Zaslav. It comes after HBO and HBO Max laid off 14% of staff, around 70 people, in August.
The total number of employees losing their jobs is 82, some 19% of the current workforce, while Dungey and her team are also not filling 43 vacant positions. This means that there are a total of 125 positions eliminated.
UNSCRIPTED
On the unscripted side, which continues to be run by Mike Darnell, President of Warner Bros. Unscripted and Alternative Television, there are some strategic changes across its three divisions: Warner Horizon Unscripted Television, Telepictures and Shed Media.
The company is combining the creative development and programming roles across Warner Horizon Unscripted Television, which is behind series such as The Voice and The Bachelor, and Telepictures, which produces The Jennifer Hudson Show and previously made The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Bridgette Theriault and Dan Sacks will run Warner Horizon, following the departure of Warner Horizon’s Brooke Karzen after 20 years. David McGuire will run Telepictures.
The move comes after the bringing together of many of the divisions’ back-end functions as part of a restructure in 2020 that saw Kevin Fortson, in physical production, and Matt Matzkin, in business affairs, legal and finance, work across all three divisions. Both Fortson and Matzkin remain.
Shed Media, which is behind series such as Bravo’s Below Deck Adventure and a number of The Real Housewives shows, will remain a stand-alone unit led by Lisa Shannon and Dan Peirson.
The studio is not merging Warner Horizon Unscripted Television and Telepictures fully, ostensibly because of the differences in the ways that the shows are produced. Warner Horizon makes union shows and Telepictures is non-union.
There will be no changes on the international side, where Warner Bros operates more than 20 production companies across the world, or at All3Media, which comes to the company via the Discovery ownership stake.
SCRIPTED
On the scripted side of the business, Brett Paul will remain as President of Warner Bros Television, which is not making any structural changes to the way that business is run, having previously brought together Warner Bros Television and cable/streaming unit Warner Horizon Scripted Television in 2020.
Clancy Collins White will continue to run development and Vicki Dummer will oversee current programming, both continuing to report to Dungey. Adrienne Turner will continue to run comedy development and oversee the comedy team. Adam Glick continues to serve as head of business affairs, Sue Palladino as head of production, and Mele Nagler as head of casting.
Cuts will be made at lower levels of this division.
However, the bigger moves in scripted was the closure of digital studio Stage 13 and the end of its workshops, which we revealed earlier Tuesday.
The scripted moves are a continuation of the TV group’s changing business, particularly an increasing focus on streaming and cable programming, which is thought to include around 65% of its current programming, amid the decline of broadcast TV.
This has been further extenuated by the ownership change at the CW, where Warner Bros TV and CBS Studios were the sole feeders of its scripted originals pipeline.
ANIMATION
In animation, Warner Bros Television is bringing together some of the creative and programming teams within two of its three animation studios: Warner Bros Animation and Cartoon Network Studios.
While current programming, casting, legal and business affairs had worked across all three (the group includes Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe), it will now bring together development and production teams at Warner Animation and Cartoon Network Studios.
The three labels will continue and will continue to be run by Sam Register.
The kids and family series development team will be led by Audrey Diehl, adult animation development will be led by Peter Girardi, and animated longform series development will be led by Sammy Perlmutter, with Bobbie Page leading main production. Ed Adams will continue as EVP and GM.
Shows that come out of these divisions include Invincible Fight Girl, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake.
The company said that multiple projects remain in active production and development and despite the restructuring, production output is “relatively unchanged.”
Here is Dungey’s note to staff today:
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