Paramount Skydance layoffs may being coming before Halloween

Paramount Skydance employees are bracing for up to 2,000 layoffs that may come as early as the week of Oct. 27, 2025, according to multiple reports.

The cuts have been widely anticipated going back to the days before the deal even closed — investors had been promised about $2 billion in cost savings by combining the two companies. Previously, reports had indicated that early November 2025 could be a likely time for the cuts to hit.

Since closing the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media in August 2025, there’s already been a flurry of C-suite and upper management hires, including the controversial appointments of the former head of a right-leaning think tank with no traditional journalism experience as ombudsmen for CBS News and naming a new editorial leader for the division who lacks significant large-scale newsroom management, as well as any experience in TV network news also known for her right-leaning views.

Details are sketchy about where the cuts might come from, whether it be the company’s film, news, production development or operations teams. 

There have already been a series of reports from staffers within CBS saying that departments have already been significantly stripped down. CBS Media Ventures, which markets and distributes syndicated shows such as “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!” have even been accused by showrunners of not providing enough staff to adequately meet its obligations to the show owners, though the current case of that legal battle still put those duties back in CMV’s hands.

Prior to the merger, Paramount noted that it had 18,600 employees across the globe as of the end of 2024. That was a significant downgrade from a figure of 24,500 two years before.

It’s also not clear if staffers will leave their roles immediately or may be able to work for a bit more time. It’s also not clear if they might be offered any support services, severance pay or extended health benefits. 

The timing of the possible layoffs is also interesting. It’s coming around the same time that the merged company will report its first full quarter of financials.

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Although the practice is slowly fading, traditionally, companies may try to avoid layoffs starting in late October or early November, opting to keep people on payroll until early in the following year so that employees aren’t facing the uncertainty of not having a job during these busy (and often expensive) several months.

If any offered severance packages stretch into 2026, that could help lessen the impact, though so-to-be-former employees may still have the cloud of uncertainty hanging over them. The possibility of losing health coverage could also be a stressor with the significant uncertainty about how the Affordable Care Act plans pricing will be affected moving forward.

Finding other roles in their chosen professional could also prove tricky as many media outlets are tightening on hiring. NBC News announced a smaller slate of layoffs last week as it preps for the Comcast-Versant spinoff and most newsrooms in general are much smaller than they were even just a few years ago.

The news also comes at a time when Paramount is reportedly weighing signing a $100 million deal with Oracle, which is owned by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison’s family, in an effort to merge the company’s enterprise operations onto a single platform. The company has also announced significant financial commitments to content in recent weeks. 

There’s also the ongoing scrutiny of massive executive compensation packages, something that many large corporates face criticism over.

Although many of of Paramount’s planned investments could boost productivity and ensure that the company is still able to lure in audiences, these moves are likely to be viewed with at least some disdain by any affected employees. There is also nothing inherently wrong with a company signing a significant SaaS deal with a company with links to its owners.

For its part, Paramount Global is likely to continue to toe the line that many media companies have already drawn that in a shifting media landscape, it needs to make difficult choices to help it be more nimble and deliver value for shareholders.