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ViacomCBS Lays Off Employees at CBS Entertainment Group
New round of cuts come a month after prior layoffs
by Tim BaysingerViacomCBS plans to institute another round of layoffs, which this time will impact CBS Entertainment Group.
“We are restructuring various operations at CBS as part our ongoing integration with Viacom, and to adapt to changes in our business, including those related to COVID-19,” said a CBS spokesperson. “Our thoughts today are with our departing colleagues for their friendship, service and many important contributions to CBS.”
The new round of layoffs comes a month after an earlier round of cuts (about 100 people), that included Sarah Babineau, head of content and creative enterprises at Comedy Central, and Smithsonian Networks president Tom Hayden.
Viacom and CBS announced their long-awaited merger, valuing the combined company at roughly $12 billion, last summer. The company said it expects to have $750 million in synergy savings by getting rid of overlapping corporate operations and other savings.
The company also is looking to unload its publishing arm Simon & Schuster, with Baskish saying at the time that it “is not a core asset. It is not video-based. It does not have significant connection for our broader business.”
Deadline first reported the news of the layoffs on Wednesday.
ViacomCBS, like many companies, is also weathering the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In March, in attempts to cushion the financial blow brought by the pandemic, ViacomCBS raised $2.5 billion after agreeing to sell two separate debt notes, both with a total value of $1.25 billion each.
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Metacritic score: n/a
Payne Lindsey's true-crime podcast first became a successful two-part special on Oxygen, exploring the disappearance of Georgia schoolteacher Tara Grinstead. And then it became a series, with Payne and his team exploring a new cold case in each episode.Oxygen
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Metacritic score: 49
Zach Braff played a journalist who quits his job to start his own podcast business -- in a short-lived ABC sitcom very loosely based on Alex Blumberg's "StartUp" podcast about the founding of his own Gimlet Media podcast network.ABC
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Metacritic score: 55
Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson adapted his hit podcast into a long-running talk show on NatGeo, with a wide variety of guests beyond the science (and even sci-fi) field.National Geographic
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Metacritic score: 58
Connie Britton and Eric Bana starred in the first season of this true-crime anthology series based on the Wondery podcast about love gone wrong. The second season starred an ill-fated coupled played by Amanda Peet and Christian Slater.USA
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Metacritic score: 60
Aaron Mahnke's podcast exploring the true histories behind horror legends like werewolves and vampires inspired an anthology series that blended dramatic scenes, animation and narration and ran for two seasons on Amazon.Amazon Prime
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Metacritic score: 62
Jessica Biel starred in this Facebook Watch series that told the fictional story of the disappearance of 300 people at a Tennessee neuroscience facility. But the show failed to capture the creepy immersiveness of the original podcast and lasted only one season.Facebook
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Metacritic score: 62
The creator of "The Office" adapted his radio show (with Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington) into a podcast, and then into an animated HBO series that made its potty-humor jokes literal.HBO
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Metacritic score: 67
Scott Aukerman adapted his comedy podcast into a parody talk show that ran for five seasons on IFC.IFC
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Metacritic score: 76
Julia Roberts starred in the first season of this show, based on Gimlet's fictional podcast about a secret government program to transition U.S. war veterans back to civilian life. Janelle Monaé took center stage in Season 2.Amazon Prime
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Metacritic score: 87
"Daily Show" alum Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson adapted their hit comedy podcast into an HBO series that hits a broad range of topics.HBO
A growing number of TV shows have been inspired by audio hits
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