Viacom Layoffs Could Mean Shut-Down of Nick Studio
By amoody
Created 12/05/2008 - 01:00
Cartoon Brew's Amid Amidi reported Thursday night that the massive layoffs at Viacom (850 employees across all sectors) mean the entire Nickelodeon Digital Animation Studios division in New York is closing. The productions housed there will continue mostly intact, but will likely be moved to different locations or be outsourced.
Nickelodeon runs the last remaining network animation studio on the East Coast, so the closing of the Times Square-adjacent office is a blow to the New York animation community.
Affected shows include DORA THE EXPLORER, THE BACKYARDIGANS, GO DIEGO GO, BUBBLE GUPPIES and the upcoming TEAM UMIZUMI (the only show animated in-house).
A Viacom spokeswoman said Friday she could neither confirm or deny that the 850-person layoffs meant a studio reshuffle and could not say how many Nickelodeon employees -- if any -- were being laid off.
