The layoffs aren’t over for Paramount yet, according to a new report from the NY Post. Sources say that Jeff Shell, now the president of Paramount under it’s new owner Skydance, is having managers create “kill lists” ahead of a round of layoffs that they’re calling a “bloodbath.”
According to the sources, the lists from Paramount Pictures, CBS, MTV and Showtime will be submitted in October and the layoffs will hit the company in early November.
Shell shared plans for the massive round of layoffs at a press conference earlier this month. Standing alongside CEO David Ellison and key executives including Paramount+ leader Cindy Holland, TV Media chief George Cheeks, film heads Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, and COO Andy Gordon, Shell talked about the cost-cutting move.
“We do not want to be a company that has layoffs every quarter,” Shell said. Rather than making incremental changes every quarter, the new Paramount plans to do “one big thing” and make a dramatic cut to the staff all at once.
Paramount was acquired by Skydance at the beginning of August. The cuts to staff started before that, with several hundred employees being laid off in early June as the company waited for approval for the merger.