Leading ABC, Freeform execs depart in second round of Disney lay-offs

Freeform series Single Drunk Female

Disney’s second round of lay-offs got underway on Monday, with several high-ranking execs within ABC and Freeform departing and the Disney Television Studios marketing department being shuttered.

Julie Jarmon, Freeform’s senior VP of development, who rejoined Disney in 2021, and director of development and programming Alix Lee are leaving the US cable network, along with senior VP of planning and strategy Sarah Tomassi Lindman.

The development and current programming team at Freeform, which is behind series such as Single Drunk Female, The Watchful Eye and Grown-ish, is now being consolidated under exec VP of programming Jamila Hunter.

Julie Jarmon

At the broadcast network, Stacey Adams, senior VP of current programming, is leaving and Breanna Bennett, senior VP of network drama, will now see her remit expand to include Adams’ responsibilities.

There were several staff cuts at studio ABC Signature, with VP of drama development Brenda Vogel, VP of comedy Jenny Fritz and drama development managers Max Henke and Gabrielle Gold all exiting.

Elsewhere, the Disney TV Studios marketing department is being dissolved, resulting in the departure of execs including senior VP of marketing Steven Melnick, senior VP, marketing and promotions for 20th Television Sharon Merle-Lieberman and senior VP of marketing for ABC Signature and 20th TV Animation Sonia Borris.

Other key departures include 20th Television’s senior VP and co-head of current programming Dana Sharpless, VP of production Nicole Ettinger and executive director of comedy development Stephanie Rosenthal. Steve Sicherman, who jointly led the department with Sharpless, is expected to take sole oversight of 20th Television.

The departures were first reported by Deadline.

Disney’s first wave of lay-offs began last month and it is expected that the second round will bring the total number of job cuts to around 4,000.

This week’s lay-offs are expected to run until Thursday and impact sports network ESPN and Disney Entertainment, as well as its parks division and its experiences and products department.

Dana Walden and Alan Bergman

In total, as announced by CEO Bob Iger in February, Disney plans to make 7,000 job cuts before the summer as it looks for around US$5.5bn in savings. Around US$3bn of that total is expected to come from non-sports-related content cuts. The third and final wave of lay-offs will take place in early summer.

In a memo sent to staff earlier this week, Disney Entertainment co-chairs Alan Bergman and Dana Walden said that notifications about lay-offs and departmental changes would continue throughout the week.

“We wanted to share that notifications will continue in many areas of the company over the next several days. In addition, restructuring in various businesses will continue for the next couple of months and we do anticipate there will be further impacts before the summer, as previously shared,” they said.

“Each team is in a different place in this process and your leaders will be sharing more context for your group soon.”

Bergman and Walden added: “These are hard decisions and not ones we take lightly – but every decision has been made with considerable thought and we are doing everything we can to make sure this process is conducted with respect and compassion.”