ViacomCBS Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

ViacomCBS is preparing for the first of two rounds of layoffs, Variety has learned. According to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, the first round of cuts, which would affect around 100 people, could take place as early as Feb. 26 — six days after the company issues its quarterly earning report. A second set of cuts is planned to begin on or around March 31.

As the owner of the Paramount movie studio, Viacom is often on the lookout for drama. Who knew its newest potboiler would come from one of the units it got paired with as a result of its merger with CBS?

ViacomCBS plans to expand and possibly rebrand the CBS All Access subscription service with more content from MTV, Comedy Central and other traditional Viacom cable channels.

Pluto TV, the ViacomCBS-owned free streaming service, will be available on Hisense TV sets through a pact with Hisense’s Vidaa International subsidiary.

ViacomCBS is letting go of staff amid a reorganization of its corporate diversity and inclusion department. Sources tell Variety that the cuts are concentrated in CBS’ legacy corporate-diversity department.

ViacomCBS Networks International, the international arm of ViacomCBS, has announced that its free, ad-supported streaming service Pluto TV will launch in Latin America at the end of March, with the service expected to reach Brazil by the end of the year.

Fox’s Super Bowl is done. ViacomCBS’ starts today.

George Cheeks’ decision to join ViacomCBS may have been a surprise, but he will begin his tenure as CEO of CBS Entertainment Group in March with a great deal of goodwill in hand, even as some Moonves-era staffers are said to be a mite apprehensive about the next era of their newly enlarged company.

CBS chief creative officer David Nevins expects a “natural transition” over the next few months as George Cheeks takes over as president and CEO of CBS Entertainment Group and outgoing acting CEO Joe Ianniello departs the company.

ViacomCBS’s Pluto TV streaming service is expanding its U.K. offering with new channels dedicated to British film and TV fare and cataclysmic miniseries.

James Corden is taking the carpool lane to Comedy Central. In the latest example of newly found synergy inside the recently merged ViacomCBS universe, Comedy Central will start airing repeats of CBS’ “The Late Late Show with James Corden” starting on Monday, Jan. 27.

ViacomCBS’ senior leadership ranks are coming into sharper focus as Chris McCarthy, head of the sprawling Entertainment and Youth wing has solidified his senior leadership team.

Programming executives Sarah Rabineau and Keith Cox have been promoted to new roles within ViacomCBS’ Entertainment & Youth Group.

ViacomCBS unveiled a new ad-sales team that relies heavily on senior executives who were already reporting to Jo Ann Ross, the newly merged company’s ad-sales chief, when she was leading them at the former CBS Corp.

The dust continues to settle from the merger of Viacom and CBS.

There are more changes afoot at ViacomCBS as oversight of cable channel Pop TV will shift from the Showtime group to the Entertainment & Youth group of channels headed by Chris McCarthy.

ViacomCBS has restructured international operations following the closing of the merger in December, with two brand groups and three pan-regional management hubs reporting into ViacomCBS Networks International CEO David Lynn.

LAS VEGAS — The flood of streaming services that have entered the pay TV marketplace in the past decade have been viewed as signs of the apocalypse for the traditional MVPDs.

ViacomCBS Networks and Comcast-owned pay-TV Sky Italia have announced a new multi-year deal that expands and extends their collaboration in Italy.