Paramount is planning to lay off about 1,000 workers Wednesday, with an additional thousand to follow at a time still being determined, sources familiar with the plans tell Deadline.
The vast majority of the affected employees will be based in the U.S., with international divisions also planning cutbacks in the coming weeks.
The long-expected cuts come two-plus months after the close of the $8.4 billion merger of Paramount and Skydance. Executives at the merged company have promised Wall Street they would deliver $2 billion in cost savings, with part of that target amount being achieved by workforce reductions.
Bloomberg reported earlier Monday on the timing and amount of this week’s reductions. Deadline earlier had been the first to report that the layoffs had been shifted up to this week from an initial November target.
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In a press conference last August following the merger’s completion, president Jeff Shell told reporters that the cuts would be implemented as efficiently as possible. “We don’t want to be a company that has layoffs every quarter,” he said.
The previous regime at Paramount had already shrunk the company’s workforce pretty significantly, initiating three waves of layoffs in the latter months of 2024 that reduced the rolls by about 15% in the U.S.
Layoffs are never an easy part of a post-merger integration process in terms of employee morale, but for David Ellison and his Paramount management team there is also the matter of the company’s next M&A conquest. The ink had barely dried on the long-gestating Paramount-Skydance merger before Ellison offered (not once, but three times) to acquire rival Warner Bros. Discovery. Last week, word emerged that those overtures had been rebuffed, but WBD announced it had initiated a review of its strategic alternatives. Its goal is to convene an auction after saying it received interest in a potential acquisition from “multiple parties,” with Comcast and Amazon atop the list of those believed to be kicking the tires.
In terms of Paramount’s corporate divisions, CBS Sports has come through recent waves of cutbacks relatively unscathed. Most other units have been affected by secular pressures on theatrical moviegoing and linear TV viewing. The post-merger executive map is just starting to come into focus, with former co-CEOs Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy leaving the company just as the merger officially closed last August. The decline of viewing and advertising spending on linear TV has put pressure on many parts of the portfolio, especially legacy cable.
John Dickerson, co-anchor of CBS Evening News, has given notice that he will leave at the end of the year, it was reported Monday. Two other major departures from Paramount also came into view as the week was beginning: Taylor Sheridan, architect of the Yellowstone universe, is moving to NBCUniversal under a rich film and TV deal set to take effect in 2029. David Glasser, Sheridan’s close collaborator, is also relocating his 101 Studios to NBCU in early 2026.
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