Paramount Global To Lay Off 15% of US Workforce, Close TV Studio

Paramount Global will lay off 15% of its U.S. workforce, close Paramount Television Studios, and transfer its projects to CBS Studios as part of a massive restructuring plan. According to Reuters, the media company "aims to reduce annual costs by $500 million and return to profitable growth ahead of its merger with David Ellison's Skydance Media." From the report: In an internal memo, Paramount's co-CEOs stated that the company is at an "inflection point" where changes are necessary to strengthen the business. The layoffs, which were announced during a post-earnings call last week, are expected to affect roughly 2,000 people. They will continue through the end of 2024, with 90% of the cuts expected to be completed by the end of September. Paramount Television Studios (PTVS) will also be shut down as part of the company's broader restructuring plans, President Nicole Clemens said in an email to employees.

George Cheeks, Paramount Global's co-CEO, said the move to close down the studio by the end of the week is the result of major shifts in the television and streaming industry and a need to streamline the company. All current PTVS series and development projects will be transferred to CBS Studios, Cheeks said, adding that members of CBS teams will also be leaving the company.

So...

[93 Escort Wagon]

Who gets custody of Patrick Stewart?

Re:So...

[Powercntrl]

Who gets custody of Patrick Stewart?

Q, obviously. The trial never ended.

New owners new destruction

[Revek]

Nothing new about this. First thing they always do is to get rid of people and knowledge they will regret not having later. All to trim some fat they can gorge themselves on and call it success.

Re:

[dgatwood]

Nothing new about this. First thing they always do is to get rid of people and knowledge they will regret not having later. All to trim some fat they can gorge themselves on and call it success.

In this case, at least in theory, it kind of makes sense. They had two separate groups doing very similar sorts of work. Consolidating those into a single organization probably lets them eliminate a lot of management personnel without causing that much damage.

That said, in practice, it sounds like it was botched horribly. If they had been smart about it, they would have consolidated the two organizations. The two companies are only three miles apart, and they're presumably going to end up having to hire

Re:

[nightflameauto]

Nothing new about this. First thing they always do is to get rid of people and knowledge they will regret not having later. All to trim some fat they can gorge themselves on and call it success.

In this case, at least in theory, it kind of makes sense. They had two separate groups doing very similar sorts of work. Consolidating those into a single organization probably lets them eliminate a lot of management personnel without causing that much damage.

That said, in practice, it sounds like it was botched horribly. If they had been smart about it, they would have consolidated the two organizations. The two companies are only three miles apart, and they're presumably going to end up having to hire people on the CBS side almost immediately to take over that additional work. By laying off the actual production staff way back in February (or so I've read), they've lost a bunch of their production people, most of whom won't come back easily. So they saved maybe six months of salary, but burned a lot of bridges. I suspect they will seriously regret that decision over the next few months.

That probably depends on their plans. If they want to build it into a profit center again? Yeah, they're gonna regret having a lot of contacts in the industry that have a "let them die" vibe toward them. If they just want to create a corpse they can feast on, like a lot of these types of deals end up being? They'll be fat and happy as the beast eats itself slowly over the course of the next few months or years.

So is it ..

[vlad30]

Because a lot of productions went woke I noticed Discovery didn't push some of the woke themes in the last season as much or is it they tried to go into a crowded streaming market too late or a combination of factors. It seems its a combination of things :-

shows not as appealing, Too many shows to keep up, the chance that a show that is good suddenly getting canceled as someone up top is not invested or some random reason. Too many shows being produced also means talent is spread too thin and costs go up

Re:

[quonset]

Is this you [imgur.com]?

Re:

[Powercntrl]

Discovery was pretty bad, though. Some people just can't articulate their criticisms of the show beyond calling it "woke". Hell, being a gay guy I'm technically the target audience for the pandering and even I couldn't stand the unoriginal season-long story arcs and how it seemed as if the writers were laboring under the delusion that they were writing space opera rather than sci-fi.

Then Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds came out, and it became obvious that everyone who knew how to write a decent Trek sh

Re:

[vlad30]

Thank you I could have articulated it better and maybe he or she would not have ignored the rest of the comment, as you said its when they force it into the story and it adds nothing and actually makes the story worse and I agree Strange New worlds and Lower Decks are much better . As for doing it right there are shows that do get it right "The Orville" being one and it didn't feel like it was forced in there and actually made the story work.

Re:

[Revek]

If they were woke I guess the rest are asleep?

Re: So is it ..

[cyber-vandal]

You watched the whole of Discovery even though you hated it the fact that it was woke? Why?

Not much reason to stay anyway...

[SvnLyrBrto]

Picard and Discovery are over. Lower Decks is cancelled after this season. Section 31 was gutted from a series down to a TV movie (That I presume is cancelled now anyway with no TV division to make it.). Prodigy is cancelled; but that one wasn't exactly much of a loss. And Legacy was preemptively cancelled before even a single actor was cast or scene shot. Given that track record, I don't see Strange New Worlds getting more than the mere 5 years of half-seasons that Lower Decks and Discovery got. In fact, I would give even odds of it being cancelled after this season too.

So, really, there's barely any reason to keep my Paramount account anymore already.

Re:

[Powercntrl]

There's only so much you can milk the nostalgia cow before it goes dry. I'd like to see whoever currently owns the rights to Stargate bring that back too, but I'm sure it would be terrible.

Television sci-fi just seems to regularly go through boom/bust periods.

Re:

[stevenm86]

That would be MGM, now owned by Amazon, and yes, they're working on it.

Re:

[Rick Schumann]

I watched every single episode of SG:SG1 and SG:A, more than once, and I can't see how anyone could write more for that universe and have it be anything other than crap. I loved those shows, I'll still watch the reruns sometimes, but they all ended for a simple reason: they'd milked the concept for as much as it could deliver.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

There was certainly more they could have done with SG:A, but you seem to be forgetting Star Gate Universe. That was a great show, an a really interesting idea. There was certainly more they could have done with the franchise.

Re:

[Rick Schumann]

Yes I did forget about SG:U, but now that I remember it I can't say one way or the other whether it was cancelled due to not being a strong enough concept on it's own or if it was because of viewer fatigue.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

I think it was cancelled because SciFi was transitioning to SyFy and reality TV/wrestling.

Re:

[mjwx]

There's only so much you can milk the nostalgia cow before it goes dry. I'd like to see whoever currently owns the rights to Stargate bring that back too, but I'm sure it would be terrible.

Television sci-fi just seems to regularly go through boom/bust periods.

5 years is a good run for a TV series. The problem that SG1 encountered is that it went on far too long. If anything the Ori story should have been a spin off. Atlantis was just the right length, the 5th season left us wanting more, a 6th season probably would have left us wanting less.

SG Universe should have been better but they decided to do the BSG reboot style of "dark and gritty", which didn't fit in with Stargate at all.

Stargate writers Paul Mullie and Joseph Mallozzi wrote another series calle

Re:

[irving47]

Yeah it should have been (and almost was) rebranded/semi-"reset" Stargate Command for seasons 8-10, but it would have required setting up all new studio/production company and a heck of a mess of paperwork and other crap for what was already a well-functioning operation. I think they addressed what the problems would have been on either the Popcast or Gateworld youtube channels.

Re:

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

Picard and Discovery are over. Lower Decks is cancelled after this season. Section 31 was gutted from a series down to a TV movie (That I presume is cancelled now anyway with no TV division to make it.). Prodigy is cancelled; but that one wasn't exactly much of a loss. And Legacy was preemptively cancelled before even a single actor was cast or scene shot. Given that track record, I don't see Strange New Worlds getting more than the mere 5 years of half-seasons that Lower Decks and Discovery got. In fact, I would give even odds of it being cancelled after this season too.

Star Trek whatever has been in huge cost containment mode basically since Picard's final season aired. Patrick Stewart gave an interview in Nov. of last year and he said he had a proposal to read for a season 4 of Picard. Then - crickets. Not sure if he didn't like the idea or if even Picard has fallen victim to the cost cutting axe.

Section 31's main problem is actually that Michelle Yeoh won on Oscar and is super popular right now. Good for her. My guess is that she either couldn't find the time to do a series anymore (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has a staggering schedule of like 6 months of filming, suggesting each episode takes multiple weeks to shoot) or her asking price went up and Paramount got sticker shock and decided that one streaming movie for her was all they could afford and/or all she had time to do. Discovery had main cast members mysteriously disappear for huge parts of both season 4 and 5, with my guess being that Paramount simply screwed the actors out of their pay by not using them and saved some bucks. Star Fleet Academy, the show I call "The show that nobody really wants except the Star Trek producers" is on schedule though. Legacy has most certainly not been cancelled. It was never green lit to begin with. It may yet get made in the future, but there are no plans to either make it any time soon or to definitely not make it. It's almost certainly a money thing. The real telling thing for me will be whether Strange New Worlds gets more than 10 episodes for season 3 as so many other Trek projects are now cancelled.

Re:

[SvnLyrBrto]

And yet Paramount was able and willing to cough up the $$$ for 7 full-length seasons arc of TNG, DS9, and Voyager. "Hollywood accounting" at its finest I guess. *sigh*

Unfortunately, I don't think I can share your optimism. WRT/ Legacy, Terry Matalas has already jumped ship to Marvel because Paramount jerked him around with legacy and left him with nothing to do but twiddle his thumbs. So even if it did get greenlit (Sorry... I still consider it cancelled, not just stillborn; since Paramount DID, in fact

Re:

[Rick Schumann]

SNW is the only reason I pay for Paramount Plus. They cancel that and I cancel them, there's nothing they have to offer that's worth paying for month after month.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Prodigy isn't cancelled, no decision has been made on season 3. I hope they get it, it's legitimately one of the best Star Trek shows ever made. Despite being aimed at a young audience, it puts many of the other shows to shame for the quality of its writing and the work it does with the characters. Season 2 in particular takes two legacy characters from the live action shows and does them far more justice than 7 seasons back in the 90s ever did.

Legacy was never confirmed to begin with, it was just something

Re:

[BigZee]

I do want more Star Trek. However, I don't think I've been getting that much. Discovery really is not Star Trek. SNW is somewhat Star Trek and I like it but it is still falling short. Lower Decks is surprisingly good and is quite good Star Trek. Not seen Prodigy so will not comment. Whilst I liked some of Picard, it was appealing to fans whilst not giving a great story. I still think that those who produce Star Trek to not understand it. Optimism is a fundamental part of Trek and there has not been enough o

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

I'm not sure why people think Discovery, and especially SNW, is not really Trek. Discovery covers all the classic Trek tropes. Moral dilemmas, the exploration of what it means to be human in a strange universe, the meaning of service and loyalty to the uniform etc. The optimism is the determination to never give up against the odds, and to believe that things can be better.

If anything, TNG was very lacking in the optimism department. Okay, it showed humanity at a stage where it had nicely carpeted ships, bu

Re:

[DarkOx]

Exactly I'll get flamed for saying this but what Star Trek actually needs most is Rick Berman back.

Re:

[Xylantiel]

But this is basically "parent company decides it doesn't need two subsidiaries that do the same thing and merges them". They can just transfer projects to their other studio subsidiary. Probably the only reason that Paramount TV studio really existed in the first place was to skirt standard contract terms that CBS studio would have to hire under. That's all over now after the writer's and actor's strikes, so there is no reason to keep the separate contracting entity.

Any impact on executives?

[clay_buster]

The company decided this was easier than firing 10 executives and halting any kind of stock buybacks.