Paramount’s recent layoffs of about a quarter of its total domestic staff are shocking onlookers. This is just days after a scathing WSJ detailed report on the excessive extravagance shown by the network to Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan.
What did the network wipe out?
Paramount Lays Off 25 Percent Of Their Staff
On Tuesday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Paramount made some deep layoffs. They laid off a quarter of their entire staff. Additionally, they obliterated MTV News, which made Kurt Loder’s name trending on social media.
Chris McCarthy, the President and CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Network, revealed that although he was proud of the success of Yellowstone and Yellowjackets, the landscape is still tricky.
However, despite this success in streaming, we continue to feel pressure from broader economic headwinds like many of our peers.
Last year, Warner Bros. Discovery made a lot of deep cuts, while this year, Disney is in the process of major layoffs. It seems that everyone wants to stream, but not everyone is making money. Paramount just lost nearly a half billion from steaming alone. All in all, the company just took a $1.1 billion loss in total.
Paramount Paying Exorbitant Amounts Of Money To Yellowstone Creator
The recent Paramount cuts are just a few days after the huge Wall Street Journal financial exposé on the network’s overspending. Where is all of their money going?
Paramount has been haphazardly opening their pursestrings for Taylor Sheridan, the Yellowstone creator. The financial publication points out that Sheridan’s productions are some of the highest in Hollywood.
Taylor Sheridan spends a half billion a year on his series. The good news is that Yellowstone, which stars Kevin Costner, brings in a lot of new viewers. Although he has 12 shows that he is juggling, not all have been produced. Yet, that is not what shocked readers the most.
However, despite their claims of frugality, this network appears guilty of spending excess money to keep their golden goose, Taylor Sheridan happy. That means catering bills are twice what they should be. Also, they report that Sheridan charges the network $50 grand a week to rent out his ranch, and the cost of cows is separate. Those are an additional $25 a head.
What Really Kicks
The kicker is that the prolific creator somehow convinced the network to buy a $350 million ranch together with him. But, it does not appear that they are using it. We are going to assume that this is not the ranch that Sheridan charges $50k a week, although it seems odd and a financial mistake that they are not using the ranch they co-own. That chunk of change could have kept quite a few people employed.
I don’t love the man’s work, but Taylor Sheridan setting his scripts at his own ranch so he can then charge the studio to rent the ranch is very funny and a great scam, bravo, appreciate the hustle pic.twitter.com/IrSYYPm7ZA
— Chris Evangelista (@cevangelista413) May 5, 2023
However, a Paramount spokesperson was insistent that if they would like to get more creators like Taylor Sheridan. “If we could do three more partnerships with people as successful, creative, and prolific as Taylor, we’d do it in a heartbeat.”
Now that the word is out, Paramount best finds other ways to be more frugal.
What do you think of the network laying off people, while overspending on Yellowstone?