Warner Bros. Discovery Shuts Down Pipeline Programs for TV Writers, Directors - Hollywood Reporter

Warner Bros. Discovery volition beryllium shutting down its long-running writers’ and directors’ tv workshops astatine the extremity of the existent 2022-23 season, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

While they were not specifically diverseness programs exclusively for participants from historically excluded backgrounds, the Warner Bros. Television Workshop was regarded arsenic an important pipeline of accidental for specified artists looking to interruption into the business. The writers’ store had been successful beingness for much than 40 years, with much caller notable alumni including Akela Cooper (Luke Cage, Blumhouse’s upcoming M3GAN), Zak Schwartz (Wu-Tang: An American Saga, TNT’s Snowpiercer) and LaToya Morgan (The Walking Dead, Into the Badlands). Alumni of the directors’ store see Jude Weng (Only Murders successful the Building, Finding ‘Ohana), Jaffar Mahmood (Reboot, Young Sheldon) and Regina King.

Last month, WBD restructured its diversity, equity and inclusion group, with elder vice president Karen Horne, who formerly oversaw pipeline programs nether WarnerMedia, promoted to oversee DEI for the North America region. In her place, Grace Anne Moss was appointed to oversee pipeline programs astatine the vp level.

The institution besides is shuttering Stage 13, its shortform integer contented studio, with existing projects successful the works to beryllium absorbed into Warner Bros. Television, which has been overseeing Stage 13 improvement and programming since 2020. Stage 13 was founded successful 2017 arsenic portion of the then-Warner Bros. Digital Networks part and has produced specified bid arsenic Netflix’s Special, created by and starring Ryan O’Connell astir his experiences arsenic a young cheery antheral with cerebral palsy, and The CW/Netflix’s anthology Two Sentence Horror Stories, which was created by Vera Miao and served arsenic a showcase for directors from a divers scope of backgrounds.

The determination to shutter Stage 13 and the WBTV writers’ and directors’ workshops are portion of a larger round of layoffs taking spot contiguous astatine the Channing Dungey-led Warner Bros. TV Group. Additional layoffs are expected to travel arsenic portion of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s larger effort to find an estimated $3 cardinal successful outgo savings from the recently merged company. Casey Bloys’ HBO and HBO Max part went done a akin circular of layoffs successful August. Staff cuts are expected to travel astatine different WBD divisions arsenic Zaslav and his apical lieutenants look to destruct unit redundancies and right-size its assorted divisions. As portion of the larger effort, HBO Max and Discovery+ volition beryllium merged adjacent twelvemonth arsenic execs proceed to statement a caller sanction for the service.