Two days after Paramount Global announced a record-high audience for the Super Bowl, the entertainment giant announced that it is cutting 800 jobs.
According to CNBC the layoffs amount to 3 percent of Paramount Global’s overall workforce, which stood at 24,500 at the end of 2022.
“These adjustments will help enable us to build on our momentum and execute our strategic vision for the year ahead — and I firmly believe we have much to be excited about,” Bob Bakish, Paramount’s top executive, said in a note to employees.
CBS just fired 800 of their ‘conservative’ reporters and staffers including Catherine Herridge.
Catherine Herridge is one of the best reporters around, really solid. This is just more evidence that CBS News is a propaganda arm of the DNC.
— PAMELA HENSLEY🇺🇸 (@PamelaHensley22) February 13, 2024
Paramount Global owns CBS, Paramount Pictures, Pluto TV, Paramount+, Nickelodeon, BET and Comedy Central.
According to the New York Post, CBS will be hit with 20 cuts out of its 2,000 employees, including award-winning senior correspondent Catherine Herridge.
Herridge, who is currently involved in a lawsuit in which she is refusing to divulge the sources of a 2017 report from the days she worked at Fox News, covered national security for CBS.
.@JudiciaryGOP @GOPoversight @WaysandMeansGOP “The Committees require this (Biden/Hur interview) transcript..there is concern that President Biden may have retained sensitive documents related to specific countries involving his family’s foreign business dealings…” by Feb. 19 pic.twitter.com/tdcI8aU01T
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) February 12, 2024
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The Post said Herridge was on the outs with CBS News President Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews.
The Post report said the CBS Washington office took most of the cuts, which included correspondent Jeff Pegues.
The Post report quoted a source it did not name as saying that Pegues had been investigated by CBS over allegations of “lashing out” and “bullying” younger female reporters who “outworked” him.
The Post quoted a source saying Ciprian-Matthews “got rid of her enemies under the guise of budget cuts. She cleared the deck, and she had to sacrifice some others like Pegues.”
Other CBS reporters being let go are Christina Ruffini, a political correspondent, and Pamela Falk, a correspondent covering the United Nations based in New York, the Post reported it was told by sources it did not name.
In a significant round of layoffs at Paramount Global that affected 800 positions, several CBS News reporters lost their jobs, including high-profile figures like Catherine Herridge and Jeff Pegues.
Herridge, an award-winning senior correspondent involved in a critical First…
— Krista Monroe (@MsKristaMonroe) February 13, 2024
Paramount’s Super Bowl coverage broke records as 123.4 million viewers watched the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the San Francisco 49ers, combining those who watched it on CBS, Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Univision, and CBS Sports, and NFL digital properties, including NFL+, according to The Hill.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Shari Redstone, Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder, has been eyeing a possible sale or merger.
The report listed Skydance Media and Warner Bros. Discovery as possible media companies interested in Paramount Global.
