A List of Layoffs Across Hollywood and the Media, from Paramount to Discovery Warner Bros. to CNN and Beyond
Media layoffs in the entertainment industry have declined sharply over the past two years. This unfortunate trend is still being felt after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hollywood double strikes, and — the latest event to hit Los Angeles hard: the series of wildfires that broke out in January 2025. As entertainment […]
Media layoffs in the entertainment industry have declined sharply over the past two years.
This unfortunate trend continues to be felt after the Covid-19 pandemic, the twin attacks on Hollywood and - the latest event that hit Los Angeles hard: a series of wildfires that occurred in January 2025. While the entertainment industry is still recovering from several consolidating factors—the latest of which is the merger of Warner Bros. and Paramount—to pursue change, Deadline.
They are listed below in chronological order from newest to oldest.
In mid-October, Netflix began a major round of layoffs, adding 6 percent of its global workforce, equivalent to about 1,000 jobs. This is the biggest wave of job cuts for the company in four years.
Those leaving include film VP Doug Belgrade, film executive Shroom Kim, and TV executives Lisa Lang McMullen, James Oh, Andrew McQueen and Carolina Garcia.
Disney's latest round of layoffs will affect several hundred employees in technology and human resources through the end of September 2026. This number is lower than the previous two rounds of cuts that were made earlier this year.
About 110 employees of the unit will face mandatory redundancies, while 35 vacancies will be closed. The BBC expects to make a further 180 redundancies from media technology through voluntary redundancies, including the previously reported 150 redundancies.
Xbox, Microsoft's video game division, announced more layoffs in a "reset" and restructuring move in September after cutting 3,200 jobs in July. Additional layoffs took place at the beginning of the fall, aimed at eliminating 268 roles at Halo Studios and other first-party studios.
Britain's Channel 4 plans to cut 340 jobs by the end of 2026.
In mid-August, Cineverse revealed that it had implemented layoffs to save $1.8 million a year.
Adam Simson, CEO of E.W. Scripps attributed the 12 percent workforce reduction to the AI "revolution" in early August.
"We are leaning towards artificial intelligence, automation, technology and centralization of some roles," he said. The changes will transform the company's local station group into "a high-tech, AI-powered broadcast journalism company dedicated to serving our communities with the same high-quality, fact-based reporting they've come to rely on for the past 150 years."
Two months after Byron Allen closed its acquisition of BuzzFeed, the online publisher has revealed plans to cut 35 percent of dedicated staff and contractors across its brands.
Pixar and National Geographic were among the divisions hardest hit by Disney's layoffs in late July. The number of job cuts has been reduced to fewer than 100, Deadline understands. Most of the affected employees were at National Geographic, both in the cable network and in editorial and operations. About a dozen ABC News employees have been affected and have been laid off in other DET departments.
ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro confirmed the cuts in a memo to employees Tuesday, July 21. They mostly involve behind-the-scenes production staff, but a handful of on-air personalities are also leaving, including the original voice of baseball Carl Rauch and NFL analyst Ryan Clark.
Microsoft's Xbox video game division revealed in early July that 3,200 workers would be laid off in a round of layoffs, 1,600 of which were expected to take effect immediately. This difference will occur in fiscal year 2027. This means a 20% reduction in staff.
At the end of April, Quixote Studios began shutting down its Atlanta operations to focus resources on Los Angeles and New York. The phaseout will eliminate about 70 jobs between Atlanta and Los Angeles, but will be done in all three locations to minimize disruption to Quixote customers. Studio space rentals in Los Angeles will also be phased out except for Griffith Park.
Barry Diller's Interactive Company (IAC) changed its name to People Inc. changed, and a memo to employees in April explained the thought process behind the change. The layoffs were expected to affect corporate staffing as the company planned to overhaul its ranks and deliver $40 million in annual cost savings.
In late April, news broke that Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, plans to lay off 10 percent of its workforce. The internal memo said roughly 8,000 employees will be let go starting May 20, leaving 6,000 open roles unfilled. Artificial intelligence can be considered in slices.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel revealed that the company will cut 16 percent of its full-time workforce, or about 1,000 employees.
In mid-April, Rhodey Talfan Davies, the BBC's interim director-general, announced proposals for cuts that would see 2,000 jobs cut at the broadcaster.
Marvel has been affected by the Disney layoffs listed below, with an 8% reduction in staff across most film and television production, comics, franchises, finance, legal, and visual development departments.
Disney plans to lay off nearly 1,000 employees over the next few months in the first round of job cuts under newly appointed CEO Josh Damaro.
D'Amaro confirmed that the cuts will be in marketing and brand organization.
Deadline reported the layoffs of several hundred people from Sony Pictures Entertainment's 12,000-strong global workforce in early April. The positions that are affected are mostly in junior and middle management. The layoffs were targeted and strategic and not simply a cost-cutting exercise.
Video game publisher Epic Games, which made Fortnite, sent a memo to employees on March 24, noting that the 1,000 layoffs were "unrelated to AI."
Spotify's podcast group went through a round of layoffs on Monday, March 23, according to multiple reports. 15 employees, or 3 percent of the network's headcount, were affected, primarily at The Ringer and Spotify studios.
Following positive earnings reports in February 2026, Starz went through a round of layoffs in late March, affecting 7 percent of the company's workforce, Deadline reported.
CBS News Editor-in-Chief Barry Weiss and CBS News President Tom Sibrowski announced the closing of CBS News Radio on Friday, March 20.
William Morris Endeavor announced a round of layoffs the day after St. Patrick's Day, affecting 30 people, or 3% of employees. These reductions occurred at different levels, departments and offices in the talent agency.
Axios laid off 11 newsroom employees in mid-March. This news was first published by the New York Times.
As part of the restructuring and reorganization, Lionsgate laid off less than 10 employees in early March.
Deadline first reported that TV and film studio Universal Music Group (UMG) was fired in early March 2026. Dr. Kelly Sweeney, along with a number of senior staff, have left London-based Mercury Studios, whose recent projects include One to One: John & Yoko, American Symphony' the Time - Prince - S
Jack Dorsey, the founder and former CEO of Twitter, tweeted that Block had made "one of the toughest decisions ever" for his company, which resulted in cutting almost half of its workforce — from 10,000 to fewer than 6,000. That means 4000 employees were let go.
CNBC announced a newsroom shakeup on February 26, with layoffs said to affect no fewer than a dozen editorial staff.
Elina Aboyan and four of her colleagues at KTLA — meteorologist Mark Kresky, anchors Casey Montoya, midday anchors Lou Parker and Glenn Walker — were let go as part of a round of layoffs by the station's corporate parent, Nexstar Media Group. Nextar is looking to cut costs following its merger with rival Tegna.
Deadline broke the news that Netflix laid off less than 1% of the 6,000-person production division, mostly in middle management and administrative positions.
In early February, The Washington Post began cutting a third of its staff. Both the newsroom and the commercial sector were affected. The sports section is no more and the book coverage will not continue. ESPN hired six former Post sports reporters in March.
Amazon has laid off another 16,000 employees by the end of January 2026.
Video game maker Ubisoft announced a "reset" strategy in January that includes layoffs, a stricter return-to-office order and more.