TVSquad

The cold, icy death hand of economic uncertainty and depression-era apple bargaining has finally pointed its bony finger at the TV industry and said, "I choose you."

The Hollywood Reporter reports that NBC Universal has already laid off 30 people as part of their ongoing effort to cut costs across the board.

So far, the 30 people who have been given their pink slips worked in the sales departments. More pink slips are expected to land on desks later this week in the news division, the first areas of the media industry that normally take a bullet when Wall Street starts firing in all directions like Hunter S. Thompson on an ether binge.

Times are tough, there is no doubt about that. But when the entertainment industry suffers, you know it's time to gear up for some roads that are rougher than the ones the Donner party took.

TV and the like are meant to be forms of escape during rough times, so when people spend more time at home, the media industry benefits. More eyeballs means more ratings and higher ad revenues. Everybody wins. Now television companies have more eyeballs, but the people who buy time to subject those eyeballs to ads are afraid to spend the money. Now everyone suffers. If you're not shivering right now, you're...not...human.

This, of course, is just the tip of the iceberg. When NBC and the like start making cuts to on-air positions and jobs, then it's time to whip out your Y2K kit and learn to like the taste of recycled water. And don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about when I use the word "recycled."