Amazon Laying Off 9,000 More Employees, Including Cuts at Twitch

EXCLUSIVE: The roster of talent set for Prime Video‘s Paul Feig-helmed action comedy Grand Death Lotto has continued to expand with the addition of Michael Hitchcock (Your Place or Mine), Becky Ann Baker (Girls), Sam Asghari (Lioness), Leslie David Baker (The Office), Murray Hill (Life & Beth), Adam Ray (Young Rock), Taylor Ortega (Welcome to Flatch) and Holmes (Welcome to Flatch).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Roku is handing out pink slips again and exiting some office space as the streaming platform company takes additional steps to rein in costs. The company said Thursday it will lay off about 200 employees, or 6% of the company’s remaining workforce. In addition, Roku said, it will exit and sublease (or discontinue use of) some office facilities that the company does not currently occupy. Roku disclosed the cutbacks in an SEC filing. Roku’s latest job cuts come after the company in November 2022 announced that it was eliminating 200 jobs in the U.S., citing “current economic conditions.”

Chad Michael Murray is taking a trip down memory lane!

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Funko, less than a year after acquiring high-end collectibles brand Mondo, has wound down Mondo’s movie-poster business and let go several employees — including Mondo co-founders Mitch Putnam and Rob Jones, Variety has confirmed. Mondo, based in Austin, Texas, was founded in 2001 and was previously a subsidiary of indie theater chain Alamo Drafthouse before Funko’s deal to buy it last year for $14 million. Mondo had gained a strong following for its limited-edition screen-printed movie posters. Notable artists who worked with Mondo on its posters have included Olly Moss, Shepard Fairey, Ken Taylor and Kevin Tong. Sources said that Mondo’s vinyl records and collectibles businesses are intact.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter More layoffs are underway at The CW, Variety has confirmed. Sources say that over a dozen people have been let go from the network, mostly in the marketing and finance divisions. According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, those released this time were supposed to be part of an initial round of cuts that took place late last year, but ongoing projects or remaining time on their contracts meant they were not let go until today. This marks the latest layoffs at the broadcast network since Nexstar acquired a majority stake in it in October 2022. As Variety exclusively reported in November, between 30-40 staffers were laid off shortly after the deal closed, including longtime network communications head Paul Hewitt. Those came after network head Mark Pedowitz stepped down along with several other senior executives.

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios has begun setting the supporting cast for its Paul Feig-helmed action-comedy Grand Death Lotto, with Ayden Mayeri (Somebody I Used to Know), Seann William Scott (Welcome to Flatch), Dolly de Leon (Triangle of Sadness) and Donald Elise Watkins (Project Artemis) signing on for roles.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amazon may be laying off thousands of employees, but it’s still selling a ton of stuff — including streaming devices and connected TVs. The company said sales of Fire TV streaming devices and smart TVs have now surpassed 200 million units to date. Amazon, which doles out such stats selectively, previously announced a milestone of 150 million Fire TV devices sold in January 2022.

Amazon is laying off another 9,000 workers as job cuts in the tech sector expand at a time of growing economic uncertainty. It follows cuts last fall and early this year.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix is continuing its push to bring out a diverse set of games — ranging from casual puzzle titles to AAA games — included for no extra cost with its streaming plans, on the theory that it will help drive up and retain subscribers. Since bowing its first games globally in November 2021, the company has released 55 games. About 40 more are slated for later this year, which would bring the lineup to 95. In addition, Netflix Games has around 70 titles in development with partners, plus 16 games currently being developed by its in-house game studios, which include one in Southern California built around Chacko Sonny, the former Activision Blizzard executive producer behind “Overwatch.”

Vivienne Chow To the 12 members of Mirror, forming a boy band and becoming Hong Kong’s Canto-pop singing sensation upon winning a reality show in 2018 was a dream come true. Five years on, the boys are dreaming bigger than ever. “Some of us really want to join Marvel,” Mirror member Edan Lui tells Variety in an interview. The statement may come across as a joke. But no, it is not, as fellow member Anson Lo, Lui’s co-star in the 2021 hit ViuTV BL drama “Ossan’s Love Hong Kong,” echoes: “We want to get on some talk shows in the U.S. as well, or any Hollywood movies, TV, live performances. Yes, please invite us.” The band’s Hollywood wishlist did not emerge just out of the blue. It came after the recording of their English debut single “Rumours,” a catchy EDM-influenced tune that has just been released worldwide Friday (March 17), along with a storied music video that follows the 12 members — Frankie Chan, Alton Wong, Lokman Yeung, Stanley Yau, Anson Kong, Jer Lau, Ian Chan, Jeremy Lee, Keung To, Tiger Yau, Lui and Lo — on a secret mission after a mysterious girl, jammed with dance sequences set in the Hong Kong streetscape.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Emmett Shear, longtime CEO of video game-centric livestreaming platform Twitch, announced that he’s leaving effectively immediately. Dan Clancy, currently Twitch’s president, will succeed Shear as CEO, effective immediately. In a blog post Thursday announcing the decision, Shear said he will continue to work at Twitch in an advisory role. Shear said he was stepping down as Twitch CEO following the birth of his first child. “With my first child just born, I’ve been reflecting on my future with Twitch. Twitch often feels to me like a child I’ve been raising as well,” Shear wrote. “And while I will always want to be there if Twitch needs me, at 16 years old it feels to me Twitch is ready to move out of the house and venture alone. So it is with great poignancy that I share my decision to resign from Twitch as CEO. I want to be fully there for my son as he enters this world and I feel ready for this change to tackle new challenges.”

described how Murray stepped in to protect her after the assault on location shooting the show’s fourth season in Honey Grove, Texas in 2007.The actress said that she and Schwahn — who she refers to as “the boss” rather than by name on the podcast — had to travel together to a Texas high school to inform them they’d be filming at their school.“The flight back from that is when he assaulted me. He assaulted me again in the car on the drive from Raleigh to Wilmington, He went straight to set and he told Danneel [Ackles] that he and I made out the whole time, and it was fun, and he was trying to make her jealous.

Hilarie Burton has recounted how her One Tree Hill costar Chad Michael Murray defended her against the show’s creator and showrunner Mark Schwahn during an alleged assault.

Hilarie Burton is opening up about allegedly being assaulted by One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn and how her co-star Chad Michael Murray stepped in after he saw it happen.

Emily Longeretta Hilarie Burton is detailing her traumatizing experience on “One Tree Hill.” During the latest episode of the “Drama Queens” podcast, Burton, Bethany Joy Lenz and Sophia Bush recap “It Gets Worse at Night,” the Season 4 episode in which the Tree Hill gang goes to Honey Grove to rescue Mouth (Lee Norris) from jail. Burton, who was one of 18 women of the show who accused creator Mark Schwahn of sexual harrassment, detailed the trauma she endured while filming this episode of the show. She and Schwahn, who she never refers to by name, only by the “boss,” had to travel to Honey Grove, Texas, before filming started to surprise the local high school with news that they’d won a contest to have the CW drama film there.

Sticking up for her. Hilarie Burton Morgan recalled how former costar Chad Michael Murray attempted to defend her amid an alleged assault during One Tree Hill season 4.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is pink-slipping another 10,000 employees, coming on the heels of laying off 11,000 last fall. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s co-founder and CEO, announced the planned cuts in a memo to employees Tuesday as an “update on our Year of Efficiency.” The 10,000 layoffs represent 11.6% of the 86,482 full-time employees Meta reported as of the end of 2022. Zuckerberg said Meta also is instituting a hiring freeze, canceling about 5,000 open job positions. “Overall, we expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired,” Zuckerberg wrote in the memo (read it below).

Fly Anakin has never been one to rest on his laurels. The first installment of his Skinemaxxx project with the producer Foisey, a fellow Richmond native and Mutant Academy member is less than a month a way, but he couldn’t resist dropping a surprise mixtape over the weekend, in the thick of that project’s rollout. stop tryna hack my facebook arrives on the one-year anniversary of Frank, Anakin’s first official studio LP.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix picked up big wins at the 95th Academy Awards, including the international feature film Oscar for “All Quiet on the Western Front” and its first animated feature film Oscar for “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.” Overall, Netflix won six Oscars on Sunday, after receiving 16 total nominations this year. “All Quiet on the Western Front,” directed by Edward Berger, won four Oscars (on nine nominations), picking up the trophies for international feature, cinematography (James Friend), original score (Volker Bertelmann) and production design (Christian M. Goldbeck, Ernestine Hipper). The film — a grim, disquieting adaptation of the famous World War I novel — had dominated the U.K.’s BAFTA Awards with a record-breaking seven wins, including best film, director (Berger), adapted screenplay, cinematography, sound, original score and non-English language film.

An unprecedented Match of the Day without presenters, pundits or commentators was watched by 500,000 more people last night than the previous week.