Look, we’re not financial experts here at The A.V. Club. Still, you don’t need to work on Wall Street to see that offering three (3!) people something like $160 million (at the absolute least), while simultaneously laying off over a hundred people from a different department is a pretty lousy business decision. That’s not just from an ethical standpoint, but also a financial one—clearly, Disney as a company has the money somewhere! It’s just going into things like Robert Downey Jr.’s private jet and Avengers: Doomsday “trailer encampment” instead of legacy programming like National Geographic and Good Morning America. According to reports from Bloomberg and The New York Post, Mouse House CEO Bob Iger is cracking down on the company’s TV division, which currently contributes around 12% of the company’s total revenue (not including sports programming like ESPN). The company is reportedly slashing 140 jobs (about 2% of the staff) across networks like National Geographic and Freeform, with Nat Geo specifically set to lose about 13% of its staff. Again, we know it’s not that plain and simple, but after agreeing to spend $80 million for the Russo brothers and “significantly more” for Robert Downey Jr. to putz around in CGI-generated space, it’s pretty disappointing that Disney couldn’t spend a little more to support the people making programming about our actual planet. It’s equally dire for Good Morning America, who’ve reportedly been asked to somehow reduce their budget by a whopping $19 million. Unsurprisingly, as the New York Post’s sources confirmed, those cuts won’t come from the salaries of top talent like Robin Roberts, Michael Strahan and George Stephanopoulos, who are estimated to make “between $17 million and $18 million” each. Those familiar faces are protected by their contracts, unlike the behind-the-scenes staffers—people like bookers and producers—who are the most likely to get the short end of the stick. As Iger continues his dream-crushing rampage—which had reached approximately 8,000 eliminated positions before today’s news—that old Disney fairy dust continues to lose a little more of its magic each and every day. At least Disneyland’s 14,000-strong union was able to snag a historic victory earlier this week—including an instant 20% bump in cast members’ base pay—before all of this went down.
