[W. Knight]

Turns out the legacy cartoons will be back on linear - as a block on Adult Swim instead, under the name Checkered Past in late August:
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Promos are out on AS, highlighting the earlier 5pm start:
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Over on CN, their Burbank studio is no more, as the division is to be integrated with WB's animation studio. People were moving out throughout July, specifically bid their farewell to the building in mid-July:
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I was reading from Deadline last night that Martin Scorcese, Steven Spielberg and Jean Paul Anderson were having a emergency meeting with WBD CEO David Zaslav. The meeting was about the current status and future of the TCM channel in the US.

The three directors were meeting with Zaslav over fears that the channel could be hit with major cutbacks while it's under Zaslav's leadership at the studio.

Entertainment Weekly has a long read over the meeting, the executive incentives for cash flow that led to the layoffs, and where can the channel go next:

Reports in the press varied as to whether the meeting was called by Zaslav or by the filmmakers themselves. A source tells EW that the Film Foundation — founded in 1990 by Scorsese to protect and preserve cinematic history (Spielberg and Anderson are members of the Board of Directors) — arranged the meeting upon hearing news of the layoffs, but that it was decided internally at the corporate level that it would look best to say Zaslav called the meeting instead.

A spokesperson for Warner Bros. Discovery responded to EW's request for comment on the matter, stating, "There is no confusion as to who initiated the meeting. Despite some unfounded rumors you may have seen, David was a key architect and supporter of this arrangement – he loves TCM as a viewer and believes [Warner Bros. execs] Mike [De Luca], Pam [Abdy] and the directors will further elevate the TCM brand and programming."

Regardless of who initiated it, out of that meeting came news of a reversal of sorts: Creative oversight of TCM moved from the WBD TV networks side to Warner Bros. Pictures bosses De Luca and Abdy, and the three filmmakers-turned-TCM guardians agreed to enter a partnership to help curate the channel. Then, nearly a week later, even better news for TCM lovers came: senior VP of programming and content strategy Charles Tabesh would not be part of the layoffs after all.

[...]

In March, WBD announced in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it would pay out new rewards to Zaslav, as well as other top executives and senior staffers for meeting certain cash flow goals. "The changes to the Warner Bros. Discovery executive compensation program are designed to further incentivize Company employees, including members of its leadership team and others whose efforts are critical to achieving the key near-term financial objectives of increased free cash flow and reduced leverage," said WBD board chairman Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr. in a prepared statement shared with Variety. "The WBD board is confident that these additional incentives…better position the company to advance core drivers of shareholder value." Meaning, Zaslav and other executives have personal financial incentive to make new cuts that will increase cash flow.

WBD declined to comment on whether the cuts at TCM were a result of the company's efforts to increase cash flow and whether the TCM cuts were in any way tied to the March incentivization initiatives.

TCM was directed to cut around two-thirds of its annual budget earlier this spring (one staffer estimates it was in April, shortly after the network's annual film festival). They add that the senior leadership team was effectively backed into a corner, collectively realizing that the only way to achieve the directed cuts and keep the channel alive was to target their own positions and salaries.

"They had to cut so much money that it was basically, cut all the staff working for them or cut themselves and protect their staff in order to protect the network," says the source. Internally, that has led to a general sense of ill-will toward management among TCM staff. "I'm not an accountant, but it seems like the more [Zaslav] cuts from TCM, the more he gets in his final salary for the end of the year," the source says. "We feel betrayed."

ew.com