Warner Bros. Discovery Layoffs Hit Cartoon Network, Adult Swim Marketing Execs

Whoa. This is awful.

Aaron Carter’s unfinished memoir is scheduled to be released next week, but it is already causing a lot of controversies.

Momma, she’s… a smaller girl now. Maddie Baillio revealed this week that she’s lost over half her body weight!

Zanab Jaffrey is firing back at her ex-fiancé Cole Barnett and the internet after facing backlash for the Love Is Blind reunion! *Warning – possible spoilers ahead!*

In what has been heavily buzzed around town, Jesse Ehrman has been named President, Production and Development at Warner Bros. Pictures.

EXCLUSIVE: The $4.4 billion grossing producer of several Warner Bros. DC movies as well as the highest grossing horror franchise of all-time at $2 billion, The Conjuring, has re-upped with the Burbank, CA lot for another three years.

Warner Bros. Discovery has become the first major studio to sell a movie’s NFT bundle,with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring dropping tomorrow.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Fanatical collectors of Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” will get the chance to buy limited-edition multimedia nonfungible token (NFT) versions of the fantasy epic. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is teaming with blockchain company Eluvio to launch “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (Extended Version) Web3 Movie Experience, which will be available in two different editions that drop Friday, Oct. 21 at web3.wb.com. It’s the first time a major studio is releasing a movie as NFTs, which are unique identifiers that verify ownership of digital content. “The Fellowship of the Ring” NFTs are the first ones to be available in the “WB Movieverse,” a new marketplace that will in the future include other titles from the studio. Jessica Schell, GM and EVP, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, said future releases are yet to be determined. On the platform, fans will be able to buy, sell and trade movie NFTs.

After 15 years at Warner Bros, and four as the President of DC Films, Walter Hamada has finally left the Burbank, CA lot as sources tell Deadline the exec waits for the senior Warner Discovery brass to finalize his exit payout. Hamada has run DC since 2018, and reupped in January 2021 with a contract that was supposed to take him through 2023.

Ahead of tomorrow’s tipoff of the 2022-23 NBA season, Warner Bros Discovery announced contract renewals for the four hosts of TNT’s mainstay studio show Inside the NBA.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Amazon Prime Video has scored a pair of deals with Warner Bros. Discovery and Sony to bolster its programming in France with premium titles. The agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery gives Prime Video the first-window rights to exclusive TV series from Warner Bros. Discovery in France, including “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin,” the first two seasons of “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” Ava DuVernay’s miniseries “DMZ” and “Peacemaker” Season 1. Also part of the pact are library TV titles, on a non-exclusive basis. These include “Legacies” (Seasons 1 through 3), “Pretty Little Liars,” “Fringe,” “One Tree Hill,” “The Originals” and “Shameless.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor G4 is shutting down — again. Comcast Spectacor, the cable and entertainment giant’s sports and esports division, told G4 TV employees Sunday that the gaming network was shutting down effective immediately. The decision has resulted in 45 staff members of G4 TV losing their jobs. In a memo, obtained by Variety, Comcast Spectacor chairman and CEO Dave Scott cited low viewership and said the network had not achieved “sustainable financial results.” “Over the past several months, we worked hard to generate that interest in G4, but viewership is low and the network has not achieved sustainable financial results,” Scott wrote. “This is certainly not what we hoped for, and, as a result, we have made the very difficult decision to discontinue G4’s operations, effective immediately.”

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery is behind a TV show telling real life stories of people overcoming severe medical conditions to show human bravery, with Netflix’s Amazing on the Inside producer Future Studios and distributor TVF International shopping Unbelievable Me at Mipcom Cannes this week.

Does the world need a reimagining of the 1990 comedy “House Party“? It’s not like that movie is terrible, and it’s an early role for Martin Lawrence, but who remembers it nowadays? And what kind of audience is there today for a remake? Well, LeBron James thinks the comedy needs a revamp three decades later whether anyone asked for it or not. He, Maverick Carter, and Warner Bros.  Continue reading ‘House Party’ Red Band Trailer: LeBron James & Warner Bros.

Variety. “Leslie Grace was fantastic.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Warner Bros. Discovery Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics chief marketing officer Tricia Melton is departing the company, along with Cartoon Network and Adult Swim senior VP of marketing and partnerships Jill King. Their exits rep the latest high-profile departures at the conglom as it continues to cut costs and downsize following the April acquisition of Warner Bros. by Discovery. Melton’s and King’s exits come just days after Warner Bros. TV Group’s animation division was hit hard by cuts — including the merger of development and main production teams for Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios. Both shingles remain, but with a smaller, merged headcount.  

Tricia Melton, Chief Marketing Officer of Warner Bros. Discovery Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics, and company veteran Jill King, SVP, Marketing and Partnerships, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, will be leaving at the end of the year; the latest senior executives to depart Warner Bros. Discovery following the completion of the Discovery-WarnerMedia merger. News of the duo’s exit comes during a week that brought upon a new round of layoffs across WBD.

shuttered as part of cost-cutting moves. WBD’s chief DEI officer Asif Sadiq will partner with Warner Bros. Television upon the completion of the current workshop class and will work to grow the program.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Warner Bros. Discovery’s decision to end its long-running writers and directors training program, which the conglom announced Tuesday as part of a series of layoffs and budget cuts at Warner Bros. TV Group, drew a strong rebuke from different parts of the industry, including a stinging statement on Wednesday by the Directors Guild of America. But what Warner Bros. Discovery hadn’t followed up to explain — and quickly revealed on Wednesday — is that its Writers Workshop and Directors Workshop will live on (albeit it, in a somewhat different form, details TBD) but now move from Warner Bros. Television and be housed inside the conglom’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion unit.

Warner Bros. Discovery has performed a quick U-turn on its decision to close its Writers and Directors Workshops.

The Warner Bros. Discovery layoffs continue.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Former Warner Bros. Discovery and OSN executives are teaming up to form a new content studio serving the Middle East and North Africa, Variety can reveal. Rise Studios is being set up by industry veterans Emad Morcos, former OSN chief content and commercial officer; Amanda Turnbull, former general manager at Warner Bros. Discovery Middle East, Africa and Turkey; and Amel Farag, former head of content commercial strategy at OSN. Rise will invest in local content and talent in order to launch homegrown film and TV productions on both regional and global broadcasters and streaming platforms.

EXCLUSIVE: Parul Agrawal, a longtime drama executive at Warner Brothers Television, has been promoted to SVP and head of drama development. Reporting to Clancy Collins White, EVP and Head Of Development, she succeeds Leigh London Redman, who left in July to become President of Berlanti Productions.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Warner Bros. Television has promoted Parul Agrawal to the role of senior vice president and head of drama development, Variety has confirmed. Agrawal previously served as vice president of drama development. She tales over the role from Leigh London Redman, who exited the studio in July to join Berlanti Productions. Agrawal will report to Clancy Collins White, executive vice president and head of development. Agrawal originally joined WBTV in 2010, rising to vice president of drama development in 2019. During her tenure with the studio, she has helped develop shows like “Lovecraft Country” at HBO, “All American” and “All American: Homecoming” at The CW as well as “Batwoman,” “Black Lightning,” “Kung Fu” “Supergirl,” and the upcoming “Gotham Knights” at the broadcaster. Others include “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” and “Maid” at Netflix as well as “Castle Rock” at Hulu and many more.

in a Twitter thread on Tuesday.“And for what? The business model isn’t working. @WBD stock has lost more than 50% post-merger. So stockholders suffer too.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Warner Bros. Television Group handed out pink slips to 82 staffers on Tuesday, representing 19% of the studio’s workforce, across its scripted, unscripted and animation divisions. Additionally, it has opted not to fill 43 additional vacant positions — making for a total elimination of 125 jobs (or 26% of an approximately 481 headcount). Warner Bros. TV Group declined comment, but it’s understood that chairman Channing Dungey detailed to staff a series of changes that included various levels of consolidation in unscripted and animation. Also, as reported Tuesday afternoon, the company has closed Stage 13, a shingle focused on diverse shortform programming (leading to the exit of Stage 13 head Diana Mogollón), and will end the Warner Bros. Television Workshop, which had existed for decades as a training ground for new creative talent in both writing and directing.

Warner Bros Television is cutting more than a quarter of its workforce as part of its parent company’s drive to cut costs.

shuttering of the company’s short-form division, Stage 13, and its Television Workshop for up-and-coming writers and directors. While neither program was founded with the initiative of specifically supporting talent from underrepresented backgrounds, both eventually became a pipeline through which rising and diverse talent could break into the industry.Following the exit of longtime producer Brooke Karzen, who was most recently the EVP and head of Warner Horizon Unscripted Television, the unscripted division plans to combine some creative development and programming roles across Warner Horizon and Telepictures.As for television animation, there will continue to be three studios — Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe — run by Sam Register.

laying off hundreds of workers on the business side. Up to 30% of the combined sales teams of the merged company were expected to be cut.

Layoffs are underway at Warner Bros. Television Group. The cuts include the closing of digital shortform programming division Stage 13 and of the famous Warner Bros. Television Workshop, which has been around for more than 40 years.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large As Warner Bros. Discovery continues its belt tightening (with more layoffs expected imminently at Warner Bros. TV Group), the company has shuttered Stage 13, a shingle focused on diverse short-form programming, and will also pull the plug on the Warner Bros. Television Workshop, which had aimed to train new creative talent in both writing and directing. Stage 13 was founded in 2017 under the former Warner Bros. Digital Networks division as a studio for original digital short-form programming. Past shows include Netflix’s “Special” and “It’s Bruno,” and The CW’s “Two Sentence Horror Stories.” Warner Bros. Television has already been supervising Stage 13 development and programming since 2020; existing Stage 13 projects in development will be absorbed within the studio. The shut down comes as the popularity of producing short-form programming itself appears to be on the wane; this year, the TV Academy merged several short-form categories as the pool of programming shrunk.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Food Network likes Bobby Flay’s new recipe. The celebrity chef’s new “Bobby’s Triple Threat,” which just debuted on September 27, has been picked up by Food Network for a second season slated to air in 2023. With just two weeks under its belt, the series is beating ratings benchmarks set in the prior six-week and year-earlier periods, and stands as the Discovery Warner Bros.-backed outlet’s highest-rated new launch. In each one-hour episode, one chef is challenged to vie with a trio of Flay’s handpicked proxies — Tiffany Derry, Michael Voltaggio andBrooke Williamson— for a chance to take home $25,000. In the first two rounds, Flay picks the main ingredients that the chefs must emphasize, while the single chef selects which of Flay’s trio to compete against. The last round features the competitor picking the ingredients to incorporate, while going against the last remaining expert in Flay’s group. All the while, one discerning guest judge blind taste tests the dishes at the end of every round. If the competitor can out-cook Flay’s group and earn more points with their cumulative score, they earn a cash prize

BreAnna Bell Production is moving forward for Jensen and Danneel Ackles. With their latest endeavor, “The Winchesters” slated to premiere on The CW on Oct. 11, the couple recently renewed their first-look deal with Warner Bros. Television for two more years and teases there’s a few more stories they’re looking to share in the future through their production company, Chaos Machine. “We are excited to continue our relationship with Warner Bros. as it’s been our home for a long time. It feels only natural that The Winchesters would stay within the Warner Bros. family and continue on the Supernatural legacy,” said the couple in a joint statement.

Another wave of Warner Bros Discovery post-merger layoffs is coming.

Brooke Karzen, who has been with Warner Bros.’ unscripted production division for over 20 years, is leaving the company.