The Warner Bros. acquisition saga took a major turn this past week, as the studio’s board determined that a new bid from Paramount Skydance proved to be “superior” to the one Netflix offered. With that, the streamer’s heads confirmed it wouldn’t match the offer, paving the road for Paramount to acquire WB. Of course, there have since been a myriad of responses from people within and outside the entertainment industry. Now, per a new report, some CBS employees allegedly had f-bombs to drop after the news came down.
CBS is a division of Paramount and, as of late, the brand has been going through changes, especially when it comes to its news branch. The prospect of a merger with another massive entertainment brand would, of course, bring a plethora of other changes, and some workers at the Eye Network apparently aren’t happy. The Guardian obtained comments from one staffer, who reportedly responded to the merger news by saying, “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Meanwhile, an unnamed producer simply said, “Well, fuck.”
As suggested by The Guardian, those f-bombs seem to symbolize the uneasiness that some employees feel over the potential ramifications of the merger. If the Warner Bros. acquisition is finalized, Paramount will also be in control of another major news entity, CNN. So there’s a firm chance that, as has been the case with past corporate consolidations, that layoffs will ensue. To that point, another CBS employee purportedly told the news outlet that they believed their department would be cut due to the WB merger.
On the other side of this equation, some CNN employees were also interviewed as part of this report. A member of that staff admitted that “because CNN is so big and makes so much money, it was always going to attract the Ellisons,” who head up Paramount. When asked for comment, a producer at the network provided a grim outlook:
A Paramount-WBD merger is a disaster for the people who work at both companies, and if Bari Weiss takes control of CNN, it will be the end of the global network Ted Turner founded. I don’t think that’s hyperbolic.
Much has been said about Bari Weiss, who was installed as the editor-in-chief of CBS News in October 2025. Some of Weiss’ decisions have been questioned by analysts, with insiders also alleging that there have been growing pains for staffers internally. Weiss – who’s allegedly been granted a pricey security detail – notably made headlines this past December when the decision was made to pull a 60 Minutes story about Trump Administration’s reported deportation of migrants to an El Salvador-based prison.
That aside, CBS had already experienced layoffs due to Paramount’s merger with Skydance, which was formally approved in 2025. Since then, the network has even lost anchors, with Maurice DuBois even signing off from CBS News last year. There’s also been speculation about host Gayle King’s future at the company, though King herself – who called out leakers – stated that she wasn’t going to give any energy to those rumors.
Whatever specifically happens with CBS News should the Paramount/Warner Bros. merger go through, staffing changes are inevitable. It was previously reported that employees were expecting a “blood bath,” and those sentiments align with the f-bombs recently shared by other employees.
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