Disney Is Cutting 200 Jobs, Eliminating FiveThirtyEight, and Consolidating ABC News' '20/20' and 'Nightline' Teams. Here's What We Know. The cuts were announced on Wednesday in an internal memo.
By Erin Davis
Disney is cutting around 200 jobs in its ABC television division, according to an internal memo first reported by Status. Employees were notified on Wednesday.
The layoffs, about 6% of the news workforce, will mostly affect the ABC News division in New York. There will also be staffing and programming cuts to Disney Entertainment Networks' Freeform and FX channels, per the Wall Street Journal.
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"ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks continually evaluate new ways to effectively manage resources and boost efficiencies," the memo read.
Changes to TV programming and digital news are also a part of the cuts.
ABC News Studios and the television shows "20/20" and "Nightline" will be consolidated into one team.
Meanwhile, FiveThirtyEight (538), the data-driven site founded by Nate Silver, which had about 15 employees after layoffs last year, will be shut down.
Oh geez, I just saw the news about 538. My heart goes out to the people there. They were tremendously hard-working and produced a lot of extremely valuable data and insight for everyone who wants to understand politics better. They deserved much better.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) March 5, 2025
Disney has cut more than 8,000 roles since 2023, per Bloomberg.
