Dana Walden talks Disney layoffs and industry survival

The president of The Walt Disney Company, Dana Walden, spoke Thursday about the layoffs within the group, saying that restructuring was necessary for the survival of the industry.

“It’s extremely painful,” Dana Walden said at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles, considered a privileged meeting place between the world of entertainment and that of capital. “We have seen colleagues leave that I have worked with for most of my career. In many ways, it’s a difficult reality,” she added.

The company has made several workforce reductions in recent years. Specialized media reported that around 1,000 employees left Disney in April, after the arrival of new general manager Josh D'Amaro. Dana Walden specified that this latest wave was part of a voluntary departure program, offering a group of executives “the possibility of deciding for themselves whether it was appropriate to leave or stay, while knowing that this development is inevitable”.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Dana Walden said that constant restructuring is the norm in this type of industry. “Technology has set its sights on our sector; we must survive, thrive and grow. This is what we are going to do.” “As with all of our similarly positioned competitors, as well as those in the technology sector, we must continually evaluate our structure,” she said.

An uncertain future for Jimmy Kimmel

The president of the group, which notably owns the ABC channel, was also questioned about the future of comedian Jimmy Kimmel, a notorious critic of President Donald Trump, whose show was briefly taken off the air in 2025 following a comment on Charlie Kirk, a conservative influencer murdered on a campus. “The late night slot is a very tough time slot,” Walden said.

“This does not mean that Jimmy is not doing a remarkable job, his audiences are increasing, but this progression is part of a context where the overall audience watching late-night programs on general channels is increasingly limited.” In May, the American telecommunications regulator ordered an early review of the ABC channel's license, after Donald Trump demanded the comedian's dismissal due to a joke aimed at the First Lady, Melania, described as "beaming like a widow in the making".