An Executive With Warner Bros. Discovery Says That Layoffs And Content Write-Offs Are Over

TV & Film

Jan 6

Our long national nightmare is over…at least mostly. At Citi’s 2023 Communications, Media & Entertainment Conference on Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels looked ahead to 2023 as a year of “relaunching and building”, declaring they’re putting 2022’s restructuring with write-offs and layoffs behind them.

When discussing 2022’s many cuts, Wiedenfels spun it as a “reflection of an industry that went overboard” and an “irrational time of overspending with limited focus on return on investment”. Considering the projects targeted, it feels like punishment for investing in demos like African Americans, Latinos, and children that these new execs don’t want to bother with. Several of Cartoon Network’s shows that were removed and have still not been given relocation either had their whole runs on the linear network like Uncle Grandpa and Victor and Valentino or were made Max originals after they already premiered like Infinity Train or before, like Close Enough. Tig n’ Seek and The Fungies!.

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He claims that the lost programs have found new homes, so either such information hasn’t been made public yet or he’s bluffing. And just because nothing else will allegedly suffer the same fate as Batgirl, Scoob! Holiday Haunt, or Final Space, doesn’t mean the library still isn’t being harmed. Hundreds of Looney Tunes shorts and three seasons of The Flintstones had licensing agreements lapse due to “cost-cutting measures”.

As good as it sounds that there won’t be further major damage, the damage was still done. It feels as though these executives have no interest in maximizing the existing Warner Bros. properties, already shedding DC shows, and shoving the Discovery brands in its place. The launch of the service fully combining Discovery+ and HBO Max is considered one of the “bright spots” of the upcoming year, and it rubs the wrong way.

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