EXCLUSIVE: The details of Disney’s Entertainment Television’s latest round of layoffs are starting to emerge.
Deadline understands that the company is combining the unscripted teams at ABC Entertainment and Hulu. The move was made by Rob Mills, who is EVP, Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment at Walt Disney Television.
As a result, two of the unscripted team’s senior vice presidents are exiting as part of the layoffs.
We hear that Tiffany Faigus, who is SVP, Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment, ABC Entertainment and Walt Disney Television Alternative, and Belisa Balaban, who is SVP, Original Documentaries and Unscripted Series, Hulu Originals are out.
Faigus has been with ABC since 2015. She was promoted in 2021, having previously been VP, alternative series and specials, taking on a new role that encompassed both the network and the unscripted studio side of the business at Walt Disney Television Alternative. Faigus has worked on shows such as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Shark Tank, Celebrity Jeopardy!, The $100,000 Pyramid, Holey Moley and The Chase as well as upcoming series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Lucky 13 and specials such as The Little Mermaid Live! and The Disney Family Singalong franchise.
Balaban joined Hulu in 2017 as Director of Original Content and worked on projects such as Minding The Gap, which earned Hulu is first Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature, and Fyre Fraud before being promoted to VP in 2020 and subsequently SVP, Documentaries and Unscripted Series, Hulu Originals.
Other credits include recent hit The Perfect Wife: The Disappearance of Sherri Papini, Freaknik: The Wildest Story Never Told, Stolen Youth Hillary, the docuseries about Hillary Clinton, Ask Dr. Ruth, Greta, Crime + Punishment, The Contestant and four-part Bon Jovi docuseries Thank You, Goodnight. She also oversaw unscripted series for the streamer, including working on The Kardashians. She was previously EVP, Original Programming at Pivot.
The move is not hugely surprising given that Rob Mills has overseen unscripted programming for ABC and Hulu, as well as the studio, since 2021.