Fifth Season Trims Around 10% Of Workforce
EXCLUSIVE: We have learned that Fifth Season has pink slipped less than 20 staffers in its overall 160 employee count. We understand at the end of the day, it’s around a 10% trim.
Sources tell us that Fifth Season remains in good financial standing, and the reductions are more about staff realignment.
A rep for Fifth Season had no comment.
The news of cuts comes in the wake of the September news of Chris Rice departing Fifth Season as co-CEO. Rice’s longtime partner, fellow co-CEO Graham Taylor, became Fifth Season’s sole CEO. Rice inked first look production deal with Fifth Season, and remains an advisor to the company.
In 2017, the WME and IMG’s film and scripted TV finance and sales operation led by Rice and Taylor was spun off into Endeavor Content. The company changed its name to Fifth Season following the January 2022 majority stake sale to Korea’s CJ ENM, which, in turn, brought in Toho Studios as a minority owner.
Fifth Season specializes in the development, production, financing, and distribution of premium films, television series, and documentaries. Known for its artist-first approach, the company has produced such movies as 80 for Brady, Book Club, and The Lost Daughter, as well as award-winning series like Severance, Nine Perfect Strangers, Omnivore, and Tokyo Vice. Fifth Season has a full-service worldwide distribution infrastructure and a vast network of production hubs across North America, Europe, and Asia. The firm’s global distribution arm handles a third-party library of hundreds of titles, including hit series such as Killing Eve, Normal People, The Morning Show, and The Night Manager. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, New York, and London, with offices worldwide.
