Some layoffs at Paramount could have major repercussions for Reacher, one of the biggest shows on Amazon Prime Video. According to reporting at Indiewire, Paramount has shut down its Television Studios wing as part of global layoffs that will affect 15% of its workforce. Paramount Television Studios was the studio behind Reacher, as well as HBO’s Station Eleven and Showtime’s A Gentleman in Moscow, among other shows.
Existing projects, which would include Reacher, are expected to be folded into CBS Studios, but it’s unclear how much of the staff from Paramount Television Studios will be making the transition. The studio also has several upcoming series including Cross, Before and Murderbot.
The news that Paramount Television Studios is shutting down comes as the company’s CEO wants to find $500 million in annual cost savings, and the company’s new ownership at Skydance wants to build on that momentum to get to $2 billion of reduced expenses.
Paramount is one of Hollywood’s oldest studios, but it has fallen on hard times in recent years after a string of failures at the box office. Now, in spite of its storied reputation, the future of the studio is very much up in the air.
The news of Paramount’s sale, and of the TV Studio’s closure, is part of a broader story of consolidation in Hollywood that has been happening for more than a decade. As the business of Hollywood continues to evolve and change, and new players enter the space, it’s unclear what the role of these legacy studios might be moving forward. For now, we know that one small part of the studio is no more.
