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Warner Bros Discovery has performed a quick U-turn on its decision to close its Writers and Directors Workshops.

On Tuesday, the company revealed that the two initiatives, which have been lauded for their inclusion of diverse voices into the television industry, were being shuttered at Warner Bros. Television, where they have resided, as part of a massive slew of cuts.

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Today, the company said that the workshops will now be housed within Wbd’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion unit, in partnership with Wbtv. They will now be led by Warner Bros. Discovery Dei Vice President Grace Moss and overseen by recently elevated Warner Bros. Discovery Dei U.

Following more steep layoffs and the shuttering of a program for emerging writers at Warner Bros. Discovery, Texas Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro sharply criticized leadership at the Hollywood studio, which he called “outright hostile” to new talent, particularly “creators of color.”

Since the merger that created it, Warner Bros. Discovery, Castro said, “seems to go out of it’s way to make the company less inclusive,” and has “imposed a double standard within the company.” He also suggested that political, rather than financial, concerns have motivated recent decisions, evidence that there is “a double standard within the company.”

“So far the new @wbd has been outright hostile to content creators, creators of color, new voices trying to break into the industry, etc. The new Wbd seems to go out of it’s way to make the company less inclusive while getting rich off the communities they’re sidelining,” Castro said...

Warner Bros. Discovery is shutting down its Television Workshop for up-and-coming writers and directors, as well as its digital shortform programming division, Stage 13, TheWrap has confirmed. The news comes amid further layoffs that are expected to hit the newly merged conglomerate.

Stage 13 was established in 2017, while the writers workshop has been around for four decades, with the 2022-23 season being the last. Both of these ventures are planned to be folded into development and current programming. While neither program was founded with the initiative of specifically supporting talent from underrepresented backgrounds, both eventually became a pipeline through which rising and diverse talent could break into the industry.

As part of the Warner Bros. Television Group and formed under the previous Warner Bros. Digital Networks, Stage 13 was an award-winning studio and production company “dedicated to amplifying intersectional stories and championing creators from underrepresented communities,” according to its site. Since its launch,...

Layoffs are underway at Warner Bros Television Group on Tuesday. The cuts include the closing of digital short-form programming division Stage 13 and the famous Warner Bros Television Workshop, which has been around for more than 40 years.

It comes after Deadline revealed yesterday that there would be staff and other reductions across the studio today.

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Stage 13, founded in 2017 under the former Warner Bros Digital Networks division as a studio for original digital short-form programming, has produced past series such as Special and It’s Bruno! for Netflix, Two Sentence Horror Stories for the CW/Netflix, and more. The division was run by Diana Mogollon,...

HBO has ordered a pilot script based on Octavia Butler’s novel “Fledgling” from the Emmy-nominated drama series “Lovecraft Country’s” writers and co-EPs Sonya Winton-Odamtten and Jonathan I. Kidd. Among the executive producers for the book-to-screen adaptation is Issa Rae, creator and star of “Insecure,” and J.J. Abrams (“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”). The pilot, which hails from Warner Bros. Television, is currently in development.

Per the book’s description, “Fledgling,” which was originally published in 2005, is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly inhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: she is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted – and still wants – to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself. Butler, a multiple Hugo and Nebula award winner,...

Exclusive: Octavia Butler’s novel Fledgling is getting a television adaptation at HBO.

The WarnerMedia premium network has ordered a pilot script for the project from Lovecraft Country writers and co-EPs Sonya Winton-Odamtten and Jonathan I. Kidd.

The pair, who re-upped their overall deal with HBO in December, are writing the adaptation with Issa Rae and J.J. Abrams among the exec producers.

Fledgling is a sci-fi vampire novel that Butler, the first sci-fi writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, published via Grand Central Publishing in 2005, a year before her death.

It is the story of an apparently amnesiac young girl whose alarmingly inhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted — and still wants — to destroy her and those she...

Exclusive: Jonathan I. Kidd and Sonya Winton-Odamtten, co-executive producers and writers on HBO’s acclaimed woke sci-fi horror series Lovecraft Country, have extended their overall deal with the premium cable network for four years. Under their re-upped eight-figure deal, the pair will develop the limited series Say Their Names.

Say Their Names examines the “Grim Sleeper” murders from the perspective of Bajan-American, human rights activist Margaret Prescod who founded The Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders in the mid-1980s. The limited series will follow her journey as she seeks justice for Black girls and women killed in a wave of unsolved murders in South Los Angeles over a 30-year period, exposing police corruption and a cover-up that allowed Lonnie Franklin (aka Grim Sleeper) to murder for decades.

Kidd and Winton-Odamtten will write the limited series and executive produce alongside director Elliott Lester, Lisa Ellis for Provenance Venutures, as well...

Exclusive: Jonathan I. Kidd and Sonya Winton-Odamtten, co-executive producers of HBO’s upcoming drama series Lovecraft Country, have signed a one-year overall deal with the premium cable network, their first overall agreement. Under the pact, the writing team will continue to work on Lovecraft Country, from Misha Green, Jordan Peele and J. J. Abrams, as well as develop new projects for the network.

Former Columbia University and UCLA college professors, playwrights, and documentarians, Kidd and Winton-Odamtten forged their creative partnership at Yale University where they both earned PhDs in African American Studies/English and African American Studies/Political Science, respectively.

Kidd and Winton-Odamtten broke into the industry in 2009 when they were accepted into the Warner Brothers Television Writers’ Workshop. From there, they went on to serve as staff writers on ABC’s legal drama The Whole Truth and landed a blind script deal at Warner Horizon, through which they acquired...

Recently, CBS delivered the new,official synopsis/spoilers for their upcoming "NCIS: New Orleans" episode 20 of season 1. The episode is entitled, "Rock-a-Bye-Baby," and it turns out that we're going to see some very intense and interesting stuff as the team rushes into action to retrieve a Navy Commander's stolen baby, and more. In the new, 20th episode press release: When A Navy Commander's Car Is Stolen With His Baby Inside, The NCIS Team Races To Locate The Child. Press release number 2: When a Navy Commander's car is stolen with his baby inside, the NCIS team is going to have to determine if this was a random carjacking or a targeted abduction. Diane Neal returns as Coast Guard Investigative Service Special Agent ,Abigail Borin. Guest stars feature: Diane Neal (Coast Guard Investigative Service Special Agent Abigail Borin), Ramon de Ocampo (Navy Commander Josh Newman), Angela Lin (Chen Lin), David Tom...

Recently, CBS delivered the new,official synopsis/spoilers for their upcoming "NCIS: New Orleans" episode 15 of season 1. The episode is entitled, "Le Carnivale de la Mort," and it turns out that we're going to see some intense and lively action take place when major Mardi Gras parties go down, along with a chilling murder, and more! In the new, 15th episode press release: Mardi Gras parades and parties will fill the streets of New Orleans, but the NCIS team is going to have to solve the murder of a petty officer before joining the festivities. Press release number 2: After a Petty Officer is found murdered in the midst of Mardi Gras events, the NCIS team will investigate what parades and parties led to his untimely death. Also, Pride is going to have to decide what aspects of his strained relationship with his father he is willing to share with his daughter.