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Why Is Disney Shaking Up ABC, Hulu Leadership?

Photo from Clyde He via Unsplash

Why Is Disney Shaking Up ABC, Hulu Leadership?

Movieguide® Contributor

Disney is mixing things up in its strategies and operations planning.

“The Mouse House set to combine the ABC and Hulu scripted drama and comedy teams,” Variety reported of the company, which owns ABC and Hulu. “Simran Sethi will be promoted to the role of president of scripted programming of Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment to run the combined teams. She will continue to report to Craig Erwich, president of Disney Television Group.”

Previously the creative director for international originals at Netflix, Sethi came onto ABC in 2019 as head of scripted development. Before Netflix, she held exec roles at Happy Madison Productions, Sony and NBC.

“Sethi was most recently named executive vice president of programming and content strategy for ABC Entertainment and Freeform back in 2023 in a previous Disney TV reorganization,” Variety added.

ABC Signature will also no longer operate independently and will be combined into 20th Television, which is led by President Karey Burke.

“Tracy Underwood, the head of ABC Signature, will exit as part of the reorg but will transition to an overall producing deal at 20th TV,” Variety said. “Underwood became the president of ABC Signature in 2023 following the departure of Jonnie Davis. She was previously the head of creative affairs at ABC Signature.”

Underwood will still stay with Disney, taking up an “overall producing deal” with Disney Television Studios.

“Josh Sussman, the executive vice president of business affairs and operations at ABC Signature, has been promoted to lead the combined business affairs team,” Variety said.

Jordan Helman, the new executive vice president of drama for Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment, will also oversee broadcast dramas and report to Sethi.

“According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, approximately 30 Disney employees will be laid off as a result of the moves,” Variety remarked. “It was not immediately clear at time of publishing what percentage of the division that cut makes up. It had long been speculated that Disney would combine 20th TV and ABC Signature in the wake of the 21st Century Fox-Disney merger.”

“We are extremely fortunate to have this extraordinary group of executives leading an all-star team, whose collective commitment to creative risk-taking and delivering quality content will continue to drive our business into the future,” said Eric Schrier, president of Disney Television Studios & Business Operations, Disney General Entertainment.

Last month, 300 Disney employees were let go in multiple departments. In July, 140 were let go from Disney Television. Pixar let go of 175 people in May. Those numbers may seem like a lot, but Disney plans on letting go of a total of 7,000 employees. So it’s not even a quarter of the way there yet.

Movieguide® reported last year:

On Wednesday, Disney announced plans to lay off 7,000 employees as the company restructures, dividing the company into three divisions.

The reorganization of the entertainment giant would dismantle the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution group created by former Disney CEO Bob Chapek in 2020. Disney CFO Christine McCarthy said that this change could save the company $5.5 billion.

“Our new structure is aimed at returning greater authority to our creative leaders and making them accountable for how their content performs financially,” Bob Iger, Disney’s current CEO, said

The Wrap reported, “Disney isn’t the only media giant laying people off, shutting down studios and slashing costs. Paramount has been cutting 15% of its U.S. workforce as part of an effort to generate $500 million in annual run rate cost savings. Impacted areas thus far have included Paramount+’s communication and content strategy teams, Paramount Advertising, the shuttering of Paramount Television Studios and marketing, finance, legal, technology and other support functions across the company.”