EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Entertainment’s layoffs are impacting high-level TV executives. John Zaccario, President of Game Show Network, will transition out of his role later this summer after 18 years at the company. Also departing is Colin Davis, EVP Comedy Development at Sony Pictures Television Studios.
Additionally, Sony is winding down its costume rental business which the studio has run for more than a century, since 1924.
As Deadline reported earlier today, a few hundred SPE employees are affected by the cuts, which SPE chairman and CEO Ravi Ahuja said in a memo are being done “to support our growth.”
Zaccario’s exit stems from the February reorg that saw Suzanne Prete, who had been overseeing the SPT’s slate of games for nearly two years, being elevated to President, Game Shows. The consolidation move brought GSN together with the studio’s game show production group under Prete.
Under Zaccario’s leadership, GSN grew into a top 10 cable network and a top five general entertainment network. The entire linear cable business has been steadily declining in the streaming era, which would explain why GSN — wholly owned by SPE since 2019 — is being folded into the studio’s game show portfolio. Zaccario will stay on to help with the transition.
Davis joined SPT as Head of Comedy three years ago from the Roku Channel where he was Head of Scripted Originals.
There had been questions about Sony Television’s commitment to comedy once the studio exited the broadcast live-action comedy business a few years ago, with its slate dominated by dramas.
SPT has been slowly regrowing its comedy footprint and currently has the live-action series Platonic at Apple TV and Twisted Metal at Peacock and the animated Universal Basic Guys at Fox, with several projects in development, including the animated Swap Meet at Hulu and the live-action Save the Date, in internal development.
It is unclear whether Davis will be replaced.
The Sony Pictures Studios Costume Departments is described online as “a leading rental house in the entertainment industry.” Its shutdown follows Sony’s decision to close another non-core business a couple of weeks ago, House Of The Dragon VFX company Pixomondo.
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