Paramount Television Studios shut down
Cost cutting hits high profile TV production studio, originally founded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
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Paramount Television Studios will shut down after 11 years as part of cost cutting by Paramount Global.
All current series and development projects made under the Paramount Television Studios umbrella will move to CBS Studios.
Variety reports Paramount Television marked the second time Paramount Pictures tried to move into the TV business — separate from the company that was built on the Desilu production studio founded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. That studio, which backed such TV treasures as I Love Lucy and Star Trek, eventually became the centre of Paramount Studios after an acquisition by Gulf + Western, and would be inherited by CBS after its split from the company formerly known as Viacom Inc. in 2005.
The new Paramount Television Studios produced The Offer, 13 Reasons Why, The Alienist, Station Eleven, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Spiderwick Chronicles and Time Bandits.
“This has been a challenging and transformative time for the entire industry, and sadly, our studio is not immune,” said Nicole Clemens, president of the unit, which debuted in 2013, in a memo to staffers. “Over the past 11 years, she said, the studio “has weathered seemingly insurmountable obstacles through a combination of strength, determination, and unwavering commitment. We met these challenges with incredible resilience, creativity, and passion for what we do, and I could not be prouder of our team. We’ve also had the privilege to collaborate with some of the most brilliant creative talent in the industry to help tell incredible stories seen around the world, entertaining and shaping culture.”
3 Responses
if CBS Paramount want to cut costs evenmore they should sell Channel 10 Here in Australia and Channel 5 ibn the UK
They have done great with Channel 10
The managed to use a fortune splitting into CBS and Viacom, then lost an even more putting CBS and Viacom back together in Paramount. They were $US14b in debt and losing $US3 a year when they started trying to sell Paramount+ so Redstone could cash in her shares. Now Redstone is cutting another 15% of staff (though many were already jumping ship), shutting down Paramount TV and trying to flog off all or part of Paramount+ which is losing money and subscribers. When Paramount Studios is the only valuable bit that Sony and Skydance were fighting over. By stopping password sharing and large price increases Netflix is finally making money and Disney+ made a profit in Q2 for the first time.