Panic, Fear, 'Fire Sale': Inside Paramount, WBD & NBCU as They Split Apart

Cable's last holdouts share the day to day horror of uncertainty. NOW: Read our can't miss essential reading list for where the new jobs are

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I cover TV from L.A. I reported on the scripted sports programming boom, interviewed Kevin Beggs about Lionsgate’s indie playbook and wrote about how to get staffed in a writers room now and the mess at Amazon TV. Email me at lesley.goldberg@theankler.com

On June 13, 2024, I got a late-afternoon email asking if I was available for a Zoom with two superiors as well as the head of human resources. I was being laid off after 20 years with The Hollywood Reporter. A wave of panic (and some relief) washed over me. As a reporter covering the inner workings of the television industry for the past decade-plus, I knew firsthand that the industry’s post-Peak TV era meant fewer jobs and opportunities (I’d experienced this before, during the 2009 recession — the first time I was laid off at THR) and that entertainment roles and good journalism jobs were going to be nearly impossible to find. As I did then, I turned almost immediately to the job boards and dusted off my LinkedIn — and found little to nothing available that matched the skills I had to offer. I started to wonder if that was going to be the end of my career covering the television industry I love so much or even working in journalism.

I’m one of the lucky ones; I lived to write another story. (Thank you, Janice Min.) But even for those who are fortunate still be gainfully employed in what remains of the cable and linear sectors — think Versant and Global Networks, Warner Bros. Discovery’s version of SpinCo. — the anxiety of “is this it for me?” is all too real.

In November, Comcast made its split official when the conglomerate announced cable networks MSNBC, CNBC, Syfy, Golf Channel, Oxygen, USA Network and E! into a new and separate company overseen by NBCUniversal boss Mark Lazarus and finance chief Anand Kini, who serves as CFO and COO. WBD followed suit June 9 — earlier than industry pundits expected — when it was split into Streaming & Studios and Global Networks. WBD CEO David Zaslav will keep charge of Warners’ TV and film studios, HBO Max, DC and the company’s valuable libraries while turning to his CFO, Gunnar Wiedenfels, to manage whatever future there is for linear networks TNT, TBS and TruTV as well as CNN and Discovery brands HGTV, Food Network and Investigation Discovery (and Discovery+). In other words, finance execs will guide the transformation of these relics of another era — or hope to be swallowed up by someone who has a better idea, more money and who wants to roll the dice.

A decade ago, TNT was a destination for scripted originals like Noah Wyle’s Falling Skies, Major Crimes and Rizzoli & Isles, the latter of which ranked as one of cable’s most-watched dramas. TBS, which was the home for comedy, featured Samantha Bee talker Full Frontal and the Steve Carell-produced Angie Tribeca among its roster of pricey originals. Fast forward to earlier this year and the net’s very last U.S.-produced scripted original — Seth MacFarlane’s animated comedy American Dad, which had been airing on the network since 2014 — officially moved back to Fox.

That closed a door to agents with TNT and TBS formally out of the originals business as the cablers shifted to cheaper unscripted fare and, like Nexstar with The CW, low-cost acquired programming. A quick glance at the cable scorecard I’ve kept for the past decade-plus and the list of cable networks that jumped the scripted ship includes A&E, Bravo, CMT, TV Land, WGN America, Cinemax, VH1, MTV and E! Even USA Network was completely out of the scripted game until re-entering the space last year with a reboot of The Rainmaker from low-cost kings Blumhouse TV and Lionsgate TV.

The landscape-shifting moves at WBD, Paramount and elsewhere have already included restructurings and additional rounds of layoffs which, during the post-Peak TV contraction, remain a depressing reality. Whether you, like me, have been laid off or you’ve had to absorb additional responsibilities because of downsizing, consolidation and the oft-cited “reduction of redundancies,” we have all been personally impacted by the ongoing disruptions of our industry.

For today’s column, I asked a dozen current and former staffers from across the linear landscape to share the anxieties they’re currently experiencing, what they see coming next and how they’re hoping to pivot amid tectonic shifts. And don’t miss the 7 must-read stories from Team Ankler that detail where the jobs and opportunities are now.

In this column:

• How finance execs became the new gatekeepers of Hollywood’s cable empires and what that means for employees

• The mood inside WBD, NBCU and Paramount, as workers prep for a “fire sale”

• The staggering job loss numbers in California’s entertainment sector — and what they mean

• How workers are trying to adapt, survive — and stay hopeful — in a rapidly shrinking industry

• Yet another new data point driving a nail in cable’s coffin

• Why some insiders believe we’re at the bottom — and what might spark a new phase of reinvention

• 7 ESSENTIAL STORIES YOU NEED TO READ NOW TO HELP YOU FIND A NEW CAREER (and yeah, it’s not in cable)

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