TVSquad

According to Reuters, CBS is trimming its staff "amid a tough media environment and declines in television and print news outlets." According to the article, CBS is cutting one percent of its 1,200 employee workforce, including the news division. This includes many layoffs for anchors and reporters, including several who supposedly make salaries in the millions of dollars.

Most interesting is the observations of Barrington Research analyst James Goss: "My sense is that the layoffs extended to some high-priced and highly visible local talent with an eye toward applying some of the same return on investment-focused expense disciplines that started at the network level."

As of next week, The New York Times reports that NBC executives will have to start laying off the non-writing staff on Late Night With Conan O'Brien. The studio had been paying their salaries thus far through the strike. As such, Conan has stepped up and agreed to start paying his non-striking staff their full wages on Monday from his own pocket, if necessary. Word of this leaked to the press, with no official comments being offered by any side.

This is a very different response to the ongoing labor stoppage than Ellen DeGeneres and Carson Daly, who have both resumed production on their respective shows. With ratings down significantly in late night, studios are under increasing pressure to bring these shows back on the air, so I'm guessing there's increasing pressure on these guys to come back in. O'Brien instead is showing his support for the strike as well as his staff by putting his money where his mouth is.

I've been watching Adult Swim from the very beginning, and it's been interesting to watch as the late night cartoon block has expanded and become more popular with viewers. Back in the old days of Adult Swim there were no clever "bumps" like you see now, but rather footage of elderly people using a public pool. That was scrapped for the "bumps," those black backgrounds displaying clever sayings. At first these tended to be silly and rather aloof, much like the shows themselves. Over the last year or so, however, I've noticed they've been used more and more to give viewers a look at the inner machinations of the network and its staff. The bumps have become more chatty and, dare I say, almost blog-like in some respects. Is this good or bad? It's really neither, it's just something I've noticed. Though it's that kind of frank approach that keeps most Adult Swim viewers glued to the set even when during the commercial breaks.