‘Entertainment Tonight’ On-Air Talent Also Out Amid Staff Layoffs | Exclusive

Loree Seitz

26 July 2023 at 8:11 pm·2-min read

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“Entertainment Tonight” has undergone layoffs impacting less than 10% of its staff. Among those let go were on-air correspondent Will Marfuggi and weekend co-anchor Matt Cohen, a show insider told TheWrap.

The TV newsmagazine decided not to renew Marfuggi and Cohen’s contracts. Marfuggi was named an on-air correspondent in September of last year. He joined
“ET” from “E! News.” Cohen has been “ET’s” weekend co-anchor since 2019.

The insider said there were about 16 staffers across its digital departments that were laid off. In addition to Marfuggi and Cohen, other laid off staffers include supervising producer Tricia Durrant, post-production supervisor Shannon Duston, senior graphics producer Erik Photenhauer, supervising producer of content acquisition Spencer Bergen, senior editor of TV and streaming Stacy Lambe and senior writer/editor Philiana Ng.

An “ET” representative declined to confirm specific names of those laid off.

The restructuring reflected changes to the newsmagazine’s digital programming over the past few months, according to an individual with knowledge of the cuts, and was considered a “right-sizing” of staffing needs.

This round of layoffs comes over three years after a merger between the teams at website ET Online and digital network ET Live resulted in “small number” of cuts in the digital arm in Dec. 2019. At the time, sources told TheWrap that only the specific platforms were affected by the layoffs.

“We have integrated the ET Online and ET Live teams to create one content group that will support and drive the ET brand across all digital platforms,” a CBS Television Distribution spokeswoman said in a statement at the time. “As a result, some positions were reduced.”

Entering its 42nd season in Sept. 2022, the TV newsmagazine reports on celebrities, film, television, music, fashion, award shows and special events, and has been recognized with seven Daytime Emmy Awards for “Outstanding Entertainment News Series,” most recently winning the category for three consecutive years in 2022, 2021 and 2020.

Its digital arm is headed up by ETonline.com, which boasts 20 million unique visitors per month, and “Entertainment Tonight” also produces daily digital pop culture show, “The Download.”

“Entertainment Tonight,” which is produced and distributed by CBS Media Ventures, is co-hosted by Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner while Rachel Smith, Cassie DiLaura and Denny Directo serve as correspondents. Erin Johnson serves as executive producer for the TV newsmagazine while co-executive producers include Whitney Wallace and Leslie Kawaguchi.

This article was updated to reflect on-air talent exits and specific layoffs.

The post ‘Entertainment Tonight’ On-Air Talent Also Out Amid Staff Layoffs | Exclusive appeared first on TheWrap.

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