It appears that no one is immune from facing the consequences of Disney’s downfall, as the company is planning to lay off 4,000 employees — and reports indicate that many of these layoffs will come from ESPN’s cable sports network and its other entertainment divisions.
A new report from the New York Post shows that the list of layoffs at Disney is scheduled to be completed within the next few weeks.
Leaked information from insiders at the company revealed that the initial wave of layoffs will target roughly 4,000 employees. However, Disney CEO Bob Iger — who was recently reinstated to his position amid a series of woke failures within the company — previously discussed plans to lay off a total of 7,000 employees back in February, according to Breitbart News.
A memo has reportedly been sent by ESPN chief Jimmy Pitaro to his department heads, telling them to assemble lists of employees deemed “redundant and disposable.”
This move is reportedly part of Iger’s $5.5 billion budget cut plan amid repeated box office bombs for Disney’s movies, billions of dollars in losses from the company’s streaming service and political setbacks caused by the company’s continued attempts to push left-wing policies in Florida.
Disney has repeatedly attempted to push radical leftist policies in its movies and television shows as well, causing major backlash from many Americans — especially in response to the continued attempts to push radical gender ideology on children.
The company’s layoffs are set to happen despite Disney’s reported profits of $23.51 billion — which slightly exceeded their expected profits of $23.44 billion.
Disney is also reportedly planning to scale back spending for new programming and marketing.
Employees at ESPN have been told that all cost-saving measures are being considered, and have been warned that no one is immune from the layoffs — with reports indicating that the most vulnerable employees are ESPN’s on-air personalities, many of whom have been pushing woke ideology when viewers are only looking for sports coverage.
If you want woke bullshit masquerading as sports, read or watch ESPN. If you want sports that actually is about sports, check out @CrainCompany https://t.co/MAZ77TKGbp
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 22, 2022
The impending layoffs are expected to be much worse than ESPN’s last round of layoffs in 2017, which were referred to as a “blood bath” after 100 mostly camera-facing employees were let go.
ESPN has had other bouts of layoffs in the past, with 350 workers being laid off in 2015 and 300 workers being let go in 2020.
In 2022, ESPN reportedly lost another 10% of its subscribers, and has lost roughly 8 million customers since 2020.
Iger has revealed that Disney plans to remove ESPN from cable TV and instead provide “direct to consumer” coverage in the future, though he has not given a timetable for the move.
