Media layoffs across the entertainment industry are hitting hard after last year’s avalanche of job cuts.

The unfortunate trend can still be felt following the COVID-19 pandemic, dual Hollywood strikes and — the latest event to hit Los Angeles hard: a series of wildfires that broke out in January 2025. As the entertainment industry still recovers from several compounding factors — the latest of which is the potential merger of Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix, Deadline aims to keep track of changes.

They are listed chronologically from newest to oldest below.

Universal Music Group’s Mercury Studios

Deadline first reported that Universal Music Group’s (UMG) TV and movie studio underwent layoffs in early March 2026. MD Kelly Sweeney, along with a number of senior staff, have exited London-based Mercury Studios, which counts recent projects including One to One: John & Yoko, American Symphony and Prince – Sign O’ the Times.

Blocks

Founder and former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey tweeted that “one of the hardest decisions” in history was made for his company Blocks, which resulted in reduction of staff by nearly half — going from 10,000 to just under 6,000. That means 4,000 employees were let go.

CNBC

CNBC announced a restructuring of its newsroom Feb. 26, with layoffs that are said to impact less than 12 editorial staffers.

KTLA/Nexstar Media

Ellina Abovian and four of her colleagues at KTLA — weatherman Mark Kriski, weathercaster Kacey Montoya, midday anchors Lu Parker and Glen Walker — were let go as part of a round of layoffs by the station’s corporate parent, Nexstar Media Group. Nexstar is seeking to cut costs as it pursues a merger with rival Tegna.

Netflix – Product Division

Deadline broke the news that Netflix laid off less than 1% of the 6000-employee product division, specifically in middle management and administrative positions.

The Washington Post

In early Ferbruary, The Washington Post began making cuts to a third of the newspaper’s staff. Both the newsroom and the business side were affected. The sports section is no longer, and book coverage will not continue. ESPN hired six of the former Post sports reporters in March.

RELATED: ‘CBS Evening News’ Non-Union Staffers Offered Buyouts

Amazon

Amazon cut another 16,000 employees at the end of January 2026.

Ubisoft

Video game maker Ubisoft revealed a “reset” strategy involving layoffs, a stricter return-to-office mandate and more in January.

AGBO

Deadline first reported of the Russo Brothers’ studio shedding 20 staffers, or 15% of their workforce, at the end of January in a reorganization of the company.

2025

Teen Vogue

Early November saw Vogue absorb its sister site Teen Vogue, with as many as 6 Teen Vogue staffers laid off in the process, according to NPR. The “transition” was described as “part of a broader push to expand the Vogue ecosystem” in an editorial letter from the Vogue business team. The letter also stated that Teen Vogue would remain a “distinct editorial property, with its own identity and mission.”

Vogue’s head of editorial content Chloe Malle, who took over for Anna Wintour in September, will now oversee Teen Vogue with previous editor-in-chief Versha Sharma departing the company. Teen Vogue’s consolidation into Vogue.com follows Vogue Business’s move to the platform last week.

Paramount

Paramount laid off roughly 1000 workers in late October with another round of 1000 soon to follow. The 2000 total staff reduction amounts to 10% of Paramount’s work force. Motion picture executives in production, marketing, music and more as well as television executives across CBS, MTV, BET and distribution have been affected.

President of Worldwide Music Randy Spendlove, SVP of Production Bryan Oh, EVP of Production Geoff Stier, EVP of Home Entertainment Andres Alvarez,EVP of International Theatrical Marketing Rachel Cadden, SVP of Multicultural Marketing Christine Benitez and SVP of Literary Affairs Phil Cohen are among those departing.

RELATED: Paramount Layoffs Impact TV Executives Across CBS, MTV, BET & Distribution

Fifth Season

Deadline broke the news that Fifth Season trimmed under 20 staffers from its 160 employees, equating to a 10% reduction in staff.

RELATED: Fifth Season’s EVP Jill Arthur Departing Amid Layoffs

Disneyland

Disneyland Resorts let approximately 100 people go in late October.

Amazon

Amazon confirmed in late October that it will lay off 14,000 people in its corporate workforce with the advancement of AI. The video game development and publishing divisions are affected.

Specific executives affected include Senior Creative Executive, Tentpole & Universe Development Nathan Kitada, Drama Series Executive Meggie Choi and Head of Series Casting Donna Rosenstein.

“This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones),” SVP of People Experience and Technology at Amazon Beth Galetti said in a memo shared publicly. “We’re convicted that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.”

Access Hollywood

NBCUniversal’s Access Hollywood newsmagazine underwent layoffs in late September. The exact number is unknown, but cuts are said to be related to E! News.

Lionsgate

Deadline exclusively reported mid-September that Lionsgate would reduce 5% of its staff, resulting in around 50 people leaving overall. Adding onto an earlier cut of 8%, this totals to 13% for the media company.

CNBC

The business television network CNBC revealed that it would let 12 workers go in international operations based in Singapore and London as well as offices in other cities.

PBS

PBS notified 34 staffers of layoffs in early September as a result of the Trump-backed cuts to federal funding for public media.

Anonymous Content

Anonymous Content began a round of layoffs that affected almost 15% of its 130 employees at the end of August 2025. The cuts will affect administrative staff to executives.

Lifetime

Deadline exclusively reported Lifetime’s cutting the majority of its unscripted team August 20, including Vice President of Programming and Development. The layoffs came a year after the company cut senior figures like Amy Savitsky, Kim Chessler and Cat Rodriguez. These cuts are mentioned below in the 2024 section.

Hallmark

Hallmark cut 30 jobs Wednesday, August 20 in the effort to transition our workforce to meet the needs of the business today.”

RELATED: Hallmark Eliminates 30 Jobs; “We’re Taking Steps to Transition Our Workforce To Meet Needs Of Business Today”

Those affected included Vice President of Production at Hallmark Media Jimmy Holcomb, who oversaw physical production for MOWs, series and specials for Hallmark Media’s broadcast channels.

Warner Bros.

The Warner Bros Motion Picture Group will undergo cuts to 10% of its workforce. The news follows the splitting of leadership between Warner Bros and Discovery Global that arrived Monday, July 28.

Blumhouse

Blumhouse laid off six staffers in the film, television and casting divisions mid-July.

Microsoft

At the beginning of July, Microsoft announced layoffs of about 9,000 workers, or around 4% of its workforce.

“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace,” the tech giant said in a statement.

The tech company also trimmed 6,000 employees in May.

RELATED: Paramount Layoffs Hit UK As MTV Axes ‘Gonzo’ & ‘Fresh Out’

BET

Towards the end of June, BET CEO Scott Mills told his employees that the company’s ranks would be thinned as a result of Paramount Global’s domestic workforce cut earlier in the month.

Paramount

June 10 brought the news that Paramount will cut another 3.5% of its domestic workforce, citing linear TV declines.

RELATED: CBS Studios’ EVP Casting Deborah Aquila Departs Amid Paramount Layoffs; CBS’ SVP Late Night Nick Bernstein Exits As ‘After Midnight’ Ends

“As we navigate the continued industry-wide linear declines and dynamic macro-economic environment, while prioritizing investments in our growing streaming business, we are taking the hard, but necessary steps to further streamline our organization starting this week,” the execs wrote.

RELATED: MTV Entertainment Studios, Comedy Central Executives Depart Amid Paramount Layoffs

This latest round came after the company shed 15% of its workforce last year.

Warner Bros. Discovery

Almost a year after its most recent round of layoffs, Warner Bros. Discovery has initiated another round of cuts that will affect the cable side of its business.

Disney

Several hundred employees at the Walt Disney Company went underway June 2, as Deadline reported exclusively. Staffers across divisions of Disney Entertainment like marketing for both TV and film as well as TV publicity, casting and development. Disney’s corproate financial operations are also affected.

RELATED: Disney Layoffs Hit TV Development & Casting Executive Ranks

Business Insider

In the last week of May, Business Insider’s CEO Barbara Peng announced that the outlet would undergo layoffs in a third major round in as many years, reducing the size of the work force and affecting 21%, touching every department. The memo was widely reported by outlets like SF Gate, Variety and more.

Critical Content Furloughs Staff

Critical Content, the production company behind Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia as well as Sylvester Stallon’s Sly documentary, has furloughed a number of its television staff with some employees behing out of work since the end of March. One source reported that the company offers a few paid hours to “keep up appearances.”

Universal International Studios

Universal International Studios were hit with layoffs in the London HQ, Australia hubs and Los Angeles hubs. Deadline was told that the headcount was in the single digit range.

RELATED: NBCUniversal Starts New Round Of Layoffs As SpinCo Begins To Take Shape

Kelsey Balance and Rob Howard were recently promoted at UIS while global scripted SVP Tesha Crawford departed her role. UIS still hopes to replace Crawford in light of the layoffs. Laura Burrows, ex-VP of Production, also departed, and will also be replaced.

Polygon Sale

Vox Media sold Polygon, the video game website, which resulted in mass layoffs. The Writer’s Guild East responded to the development.

LA Times

Fourteen members of the Los Angeles Times were reported to receive layoff notices in the latest round at the publication, according to the L.A. Times Guild.

“This is the third round of layoffs in as many years, and it will leave the Los Angeles Times ever more decimated,” the Guild said in a statement. “Today’s announcement of cuts represent 6% of our newsroom staff.”

NBCUniversal

NBCUniversal has decided to form a spinoff of a new standalone company, SpinCo, that will house cable networks like E!, Syfy, oxygen and USA Network. The Comcast-owned company is also restructuring. Layoffs were first initiated at the end of April in the wake of these moves.

The unscripted teams were hit the hardest with at least two SVPs on the reality side impacted as well as a number working across NBC, Peacock and Bravo, Deadline exclusively reported. Stephanie Steele, SVP Unscripted Current Production, and Jenny Ramirez, SVP Unscripted Formats, were among those let go April 30.

Mattel

The major toymaker of Barbie, Hot Wheels and more will lay off 120 workers as of mid-March 2025.

ABC/Disney

The Walt Disney Company underwent a round of layoffs Wednesday, March 5, that will impact nearly 200 employees, or 6 % of the workforce in the ABC News Group and the company’s entertainment networks.

ABC News underwent a restructuring as a result of the layoffs.

Lionsgate Television

Lionsgate Television also opted for belt-tightening that affected 6 % of its workforce, about 80 employees, following unscripted cuts equating to 5% of the staff in November 2024.

RELATED: MSNBC Taps Scott Matthews As Senior VP Of Newsgathering, Plans To Hire More Than 100 Journalists

CNN

CNN cut around 200 jobs in January 2025.

Allen Media Group

Two Dozen Allen Media Group television stations across the country faced elimination, reassignment or replacement of meteorologists in January.

Meta

The Facebook parent company Meta warned of layoffs of 5 % of its employees across platforms in January.

The Washington Post

In one of the first waves of job cuts to hit the Fourth Estate, The Washington Post faced a round of layoffs that impacted 4% of its total staff.

RELATED: ‘The Bachelor’ Nation: Majority Of Crew Exits Following ‘The Bachelorette’ Pause

2024

After the COVID-19 pandemic, two strikes in Hollywood and with the impact of streaming and the advent of A.I, the media landscape has continued to shift and consolidate, as Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav predicted at the 2024 Allen & Co. Sun Valley Retreat.

Zaslav knows whereof he speaks, with his own company undergoing successive waves of post-merger layoffs over the past two years, the most recent coming in May of this year when the company closed its TV and streaming service Newshub in New Zealand. More than 300 jobs were lost.

Paramount likewise targeted a 3% reduction in its global headcount early in 2024, with additional synergies likely if the Skydance deal closes.

The Fourth Estate has been hit hard. Politico’s estimate counts over 500 journalist layoffs this year alone. That largely began in January with the Los Angeles Times cutting more than 20% of its newsroom. Shortly after that, Time underwent layoffs as well, cutting 15% of its newsroom, according to CNN.

Nexstar

Nexstar Media Group Inc. began belt-tightening measures in December 2024 to cut 2 % of its workforce. The reductions are centered on the company’s local station portfolio, which is the largest in the U.S. The 2% equates to about 260 employees.

TelevisaUnivision

Another traditional media company affected by cord-cutting, will lay off several hundred workers in a restructuring move.

NowThis

According to a statement from the WGA East, “13 of the 21 remaining NowThis WGAE members were laid off immediately upon receipt of an email notice. The layoffs eliminated 3 of 4 members of the publishing team, 3 of 4 video editors, 3 of 7 Producers and Senior Producers, the sole Senior Motion Graphics Designer, the sole Senior Writer, the sole Senior Insights Analyst, and the sole Audience Strategist. The barebones group of remaining salaried workers at NowThis will now be forced to meet tight deadlines and increasing pressure without proper teams to support them.” 

Lionsgate

Lionsgate Alternative Television’s unscripted TV arm underwent layoffs Nov. 20 at eOne’s U.S. label.

RELATED: Lionsgate Admits Unscripted TV Division Is “Feeling The Effects Of A Continuing Market Correction”

The Associated Press

The Associated Press announced plans to offer buyouts Nov. 18, impacting about 8% of its workforce, the latest mainstream news organization to grapple with cost cutting.

The CW

The CW began undergoing layoffs Nov. 12. As. many as 35 people were affected, and scripted PR was hit the hardest.

CAA

CAA began reducing staff by an anticipated 20-30 people in early November after beginning the evaluations and reviews that would dictate who gets let go.

SK Global

The independent studio behind Anyone But You and Crazy Rich Asians went through layoffs in November with less than 20 employees affected by the cuts.

UTA

The agency began cutting employees in its talent department, production group, unscripted division and endorsements and licensing.

ABC News

ABC News went through a round of layoffs early in October 2024, which affected 75 employees across ABC-owned stations. The job reductions are split evenly between the two divisions, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Disney

Disney went through another wave of layoffs that affected around 300 people across corporate, legal, finance, communications and HR. Parks, ESPN and Disney Entertainment Television are safe for now. This followed a round of layoffs at the end of July.

ABC Signature has been folded into 20th Television under President Karey Burke with ABC and Hulu Originals scripted drama and comedy teams merging under ABC/Freeform EVP Simran Sethi, who is know President of Scripted Programming for Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment.

RELATED: Disney Entertainment Television Consolidates Casting Of ABC-Hulu-Onyx & 20th TV-ABC Signature

Tracy Underwood stepped down as President of ABC Signature and took an overall producing deal with Disney Television Studios. SVP Erin Wehrenberg, ABC’s Head of Comedy, also stepped down.

The layoffs at Disney Entertainment Television affected 140 people, around 2% of the workforce. National Geographic was the hardest hit with abut 60 people let go, making up 13% of its staff.

Animation studio Pixar reduced 14% of its staff, around 175 employees affected, in May.

Paramount Global

Co-CEO of Paramount Global Chris McCarthy confirmed a second round of layoffs heading for 15% of the entertainment company’s States-side staff. The cuts were made to Paramount Television Studios as the production company was shuttered all together in August.

In September, veteran Tina Koyanagi-Rosener and eight of her colleagues who worked on content strategy were laid off as part of the forecast 15 % cut.

RELATED: Nickelodeon Marketing Exec Sabrina Caluori Exiting Ahead Of Broader Paramount Layoffs

The studio downsized in February with the departure of several key executives who left. The move impacted over 800 employees.

A+E Networks

A+E Networks underwent layoffs in August with cuts to the Lifetime and the History Channel’s programming teams. SVP of Unscripted Development and Programming at Lifetime Amy Savitsky as well as VPs Kim Chessler and Cat Rodriguez were affected as well as A&E’s Peter Tarshis and Zach Behr, VP of Unscripted Programming for History.

Merit Street Media

Dr. Phil McGraw’s news and entertainment network Merit Street media laid off nearly a third of its employees at the beginning of August. The company was partnered with Christian-based Trinity Broadcasting for distribution.

Hearst’s Very Local Streaming Service

Hearst Television let go dozens of employees in early August, Deadline exclusively reported.

RELATED: Paramount+’s Communications Team Dissolved As Layoffs Hit Streamer Hard

Fox Entertainment

Fox Media has undergone staff reductions, cutting 30 employees in July.

The layoffs involve employees across all three divisions, the first two headed by Michael Thorn (network) and Fernando Szew (studios). The search for a new head of worldwide content sales is ongoing, with Tony Vassiliadis leading the team in the interim.

Lifted Entertainment

TheITV Studios-owned production company, which produces Love Island had 15 to 20 roles come under scrutiny. The number represents around 10% of the circa-160-staff Lifted Entertainment operation.

Warner Bros. Discovery

The company has begun another round of layoffs across production, business affairs and finance. This comes a year after a round of layoffs that led to the departure of a number of network executives in its cable business.

Entertainment Tonight

As reported by TheWrap, Entertainment Tonight revealed a round of layoffs that would impact the news desk in TV and editorial departments. The layoffs will take place Sept. 7 ahead of Season 44.

RELATED: CNN To Reduce Staff By About 100 As CEO Unveils New Details Of “One Newsroom” Strategy; Layoffs Include Media Critic Brian Lowry — Update