Deadline; Warner Bros. Discovery TV Layoffs Begin: Who’s Leaving?

Story from Deadline:

Warner Bros. Discovery has cut more people across its cable networks group over the last 24 hours. More names below from Adult Swim, OWN, Travel Channel, Discovery and TCM.

As Deadline revealed in May, Warner Bros. Discovery is undergoing another round of layoffs in its television business and it’s starting today.

The layoffs, which were described by insiders as “pockets of refinement” rather than wholesale cuts, are happening in its cable TV business, which includes the Discovery-branded cable networks and Turner networks.

Warner Bros. Discovery operates cable networks including Discovery Channel, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Science Channel and Animal Planet as well as the former Scripps networks such as Food Network and HGTV. It also operates the former Turner-branded networks such as TNT, TBS and truTV.

The division is run by Chairman and Chief Content Officer, US Networks Group Kathleen Finch.

The biggest departure is Amy Introcaso-Davis, who is EVP, Development and Production, Factual Programming, Discovery.

Introcaso-Davis oversaw all aspects of Discovery’s factual development, including for Discovery+, and development and production for Animal Planet. She joined the company in January 2020, initially to oversee programming for Animal Planet, from E!, where she was EVP, Development and Production.

At Discovery, she has overseen the team responsible for series including Animal Planet’s Crikey! It’s the Irwins, The Zoo: San Diego and Surviving Joe Exotic as well as the Puppy Bowl. Discovery+ originals that she has spearheaded include Pig Royalty, Carol Baskin’s Cage Fight, Shark Academy, and The Mighty Underdogs, in addition to developing Love in the Jungle, Million Dollar Wheels and co-developing Naked and Afraid of Love.

At E!, she oversaw production of Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Total Bellas and developed Very Cavallari. Before that she was EVP Programming and Development, GSN and held roles at Oxygen Media and Bravo.

Food Network has also been hit by the cuts.

Execs leaving include Gretchen Eisele, Carolyn Gross and Neil Padover. All three are Directors of Programming & Development for Food Network.

Eisele has overseen shows such as The Messy History of American Foods. Before she was at Food, she held a similar position at Science Channel, where she oversaw series such as Space Launch Live. She joined from Nat Geo, where she was an exec producer on Explorer.

Gross oversaw developing new formats and talent as well as production of series, pilots and specials for Food Network, Cooking Channel and Discovery+. She has led series including Chopped, Holiday Baking Championship, Outrageous Pumpkins and Man Fire Food. Before Food Network, she worked in the Non-Scripted Television Department at WME in New York

Padover, meanwhile, worked on series including Kids Baking Championship, Well Done with Sebastian Maniscalo and All-Star Best Thing I Ever Ate.

Other execs impacted by the layoffs include HGTV exec Paul Lewis. He was a programming and development executive at the Property Brothers: Forever Home network. Lewis has been at Discovery and the former Scripps Networks for ten years working at several networks including DIY and Great American Country.

Elsewhere, Caroline Perez, who is Senior Vice President, Development and Production at Discovery, who has been with the company since 2009, is also exiting. Perez oversaw production and development staff as well as executive producers for the tentpole and live department, having previously done the same role at Science Channel between 2016 and 2022. Her credits include the Emmy-winning Space Launch Live: America Returns to Space, she developed and produced Mountain Monsters at Destination America, Homemade Astronauts at Science and DC Cupcakes at TLC.

Andrew Lessner, who is Senior Manager of Development and Production Tentpoles, Events and Live across Discovery, TBS, TNT, TruTV, Science and Animal Planet, is also affected. He was responsible for series including Mysteries of the Abandoned and Black Files Declassified.

On the TLC side, Danielle Ostroske-D’Ingillo, Senior Director, Development at TLC, is also leaving. Ostroske-D’Ingillo has been with the company since 2013 and has been involved in series such as 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days.

Travel Channel and OWN have been hit with Angela Freeman leaving the former and Havva Eisenbaum, who is Vice President, Programming & Development and has overseen the company’s non-scripted slate, exiting the latter.

Across HGTV, ID and TRVL, Sara Burns, who is SVP of Scheduling and Program Strategy is leaving. On a group level, Carl Nicolaou, who is Group Vice President – Business & Legal Affairs, is exiting. Kristen Variola, Senior Vice President, Multiplatform Production & Digital Strategy across Discovery, Animal Planet, & Science, is impacted and Todd Lefkowitz, an Executive Producer at Discovery Channel, whose credits include Street Outlaws, Fast N’ Loud and Bering Sea Gold, is also leaving.

Over at Adult Swim, there are also major changes. We understand Ollie Green, VP, Animation, who has been described as one of the senior leaders of the company and who has exec produced series including Rick and Morty and Tuca & Bertie, is leaving alongside Ned Hastings, senior editor and producer, who has been with the company for over 20 years and is best known for his work on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, as well as around eight to nine other long-term employees.

TCM has also been hit hard by the cuts. As we noted, Pola Changnon, who was EVP and GM of the cable network and who has been with the company for more than 25 years, is leaving and will be replaced by Michael Ouweleen, the President of Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Discovery Family and Boomerang, who previously oversaw TCM before the merger.

But there are a number of other layoffs. Genevieve McGillicuddy, VP, Enterprises & Strategic Partnerships, who is also Turner Classic Movies Festival Director, is leaving alongside Charlie Tabesh, SVP, Programming and Content Strategy, Anne Wilson, Vice President of Studio Production and Dextor Fedor, VP of brand creative and marketing.

In February, at a Deadline-moderated keynote at the Realscreen conference in Austin, Texas, Finch was candid about the challenges of merging the businesses, which she called “tough”.

“When you go through a merger, you do sort of figure out how many layers we need. How much staff do we need? I’m not really running these networks as 30 individual teams, they’re clustered together, they’re put together with leaders at the top who really live and breathe that content,” she said. “That’s not to say that the people that we lost aren’t amazing people, they are, we just had to have a restructure that has less people doing the jobs.

© 2023 Deadline Hollywood.