#Producer Fifth Season Lays Off 30 Staffers Amid Strikes

Hollywood production and distribution company Fifth Season laid off 12 percent of its staff, or 30 positions, Thursday due to the impact of the writers and actors strikes. 

The company, previously known as Endeavor Content, itself was formed after a packaging fees fight between Endeavor and the Writers Guild of America, in which the talent agency was required to divest a majority stake in the business in order to be able to represent writers. It had been doing business as Endeavor Content since 2017.

Fifth Season is now majority controlled by South Korean entertainment company, CJ ENM, with Endeavor retaining a minority stake. The studio has been responsible for shows such as Apple’s Severance, AMC’s Killing Eve and the film 80 for Brady, among others. 

Eight people of the 220 person workforce had previously been laid off from the company in late April, ahead of both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. The positions eliminated Thursday included executive and administrative roles. 

The company is now hoping for a “swift resolution” to the strikes, which began May 2 and July 14, respectively, and have taken a “financial, creative, and emotional toll,” according to a statement provided by a company spokesperson. 

“Today we made the difficult decision to reduce Fifth Season’s headcount due to the impact on our business operations as a result of the ongoing dispute between the AMPTP and WGA & SAG-AFTRA. This resulted in the loss of 30 positions across executive and administrative roles, approximately 12% of our workforce,” company rep said. Our team is extraordinary and the reduction of staff by even one individual, let alone many, is heartbreaking. We are hopeful the growing financial, creative, and emotional toll of these strikes can be curtailed with a swift resolution and that every person in our industry can return to the business we are all passionate about: storytelling. We will emerge from this period well-positioned and ready to return to producing great films and television series.” 

This is the latest company to face financial pain from the strikes. Talent agency CAA parted ways with 60 employees this month. And Endeavor, which retains the talent agency WME, in addition to UFC, has said that it expects the impact of the strikes to be about $25 million per month. 

The WGA and the studios and streamers restarted talks on Aug. 11, but on Thursday, the guild called the recent counteroffer on the table “neither nothing, nor nearly enough.”