BET will be laying off staffers as part of Paramount’s 3.5% reduction to its U.S. workforce, BET Media Group CEO Scott Mills shared in an internal memo on Wednesday.
The job cuts will impact staffers “in areas including linear research, finance, and business and legal affairs,” according to the memo, as seen by TheWrap.
Starting Wednesday, the network will be implementing “a streamlined organization structure” utilizing its existing teams within the content strategy and production, programming, marketing and insights, social impact, advertising sales, streaming and digital departments.
Earlier this month, Paramount co-CEOs George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins told staff they would be “prioritizing investments in our growing streaming business” by reducing their U.S. workforce by 3.5%, which would impact hundreds of employees. They blamed the layoffs on linear declines.
The news also comes just two weeks after the 2025 BET Awards and amid Paramount’s $20 billion lawsuit with President Donald Trump over CBS’ “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris.
You can read Mills’ full memo, below:
As Paramount’s co-CEOs recently shared, the company is taking further steps to streamline Paramount to ensure it is positioned for continued success. BET is not immune to the conditions necessitating these actions, so we too must reduce staff within our organization.
As a result, today we are implementing a streamlined organization structure where BET will continue to operate the functions that are core to our mission, value proposition and market leadership position, including content strategy and production, programming, marketing and insights, social impact, advertising sales, streaming and digital. At the same time, we will further leverage Paramount’s scaled support functions in areas including linear research, finance, and business and legal affairs.
This is a very difficult moment – the departure of talented team members who have been great collaborators, colleagues and friends; team members who have so meaningfully contributed to BET’s success and who share our passion for BET’s mission and purpose. On behalf of everyone at BET, I thank each of our departing team members for their great work, their sacrifice, and their enduring contributions to BET’s legacy.
To all my BET colleagues, I thank you for your continued commitment to this company, to each other, and to the communities we serve. We are a powerful and resilient brand, a powerful and resilient business, and most importantly, a powerful and resilient team. I remain confident in our collective strength to continue moving BET forward.
TheWrap has reached out to BET and Paramount for further comment.
