Paramount Laying Off 800 Employees

Paramount Global is laying off roughly 800 people — about 3 percent of its workforce — multiple outlets reported Tuesday.

CEO Bob Bakish cited the need to prioritize earnings growth in a message to employees about the layoffs that was published in full by Variety.

“While I realize these changes are in no way easy, as I said last month, I am confident this is the right decision for our future,” he said in the message, which noted the company’s recent successes with the Super Bowl and the return of Jon Stewart to “The Daily Show.”

“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.”

The news comes a day after CBS announced Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII was the most-watched telecast in history with 123.4 million viewers across all platforms.

Deadline first reported the impending layoffs last month, noting that Paramount underwent numerous cuts in the last year-and-a-half and that its stock as of late January was worth less than half its value when the company was formed by a 2019 merger of CBS and Viacom.

Paramount Global owns among its assets CBS, Paramount Pictures, several cable networks, and the streaming service Paramount+, which lost $238 million in 2023’s third quarter, CNBC reported.