Hulu, ABC to Combine Comedy & Drama Teams Under Simran Sethi, ABC Signature Folded Into 20th TV Under Karey Burke

Disney is reorganizing major parts of its television operations, with the Mouse House set to combine the ABC and Hulu scripted drama and comedy teams.

Simran Sethi will be promoted to the role of president of scripted programming of Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment to run the combined teams. She will continue to report to Craig Erwich, president of Disney Television Group. Sethi was most recently named executive vice president of programming and content strategy for ABC Entertainment and Freeform back in 2023 in a previous Disney TV reorganization.

In addition, ABC Signature will cease to operate as a standalone studio and will be folded into 20th Television under Karey Burke, president of the latter studio. Tracy Underwood, the head of ABC Signature, will exit as part of the reorg but will transition to an overall producing deal at 20th TV. Underwood became the president of ABC Signature in 2023 following the departure of Jonnie Davis. She was previously the head of creative affairs at ABC Signature.

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According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, approximately 30 Disney employees will be laid off as a result of the moves. It was not immediately clear at time of publishing what percentage of the division that cut makes up. It had long been speculated that Disney would combine 20th TV and ABC Signature in the wake of the 21st Century Fox-Disney merger.

Sethi originally joined ABC in 2019 as head of scripted development, while she had previously also worked at Freeform. She came to ABC from Netflix, where she was the creative director for international originals. She has also held executive roles at NBC, Sony Pictures Television, and Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions.

These are the latest moves at Disney as the media giant continues to look for ways to cut costs in the challenging economic conditions currently affecting the entertainment industry as a whole.

Most recently, it was reported that 300 Disney employees across multiple corporate departments were let go in late September. Before that, 140 people were laid off at Disney Television in July while 175 people were let go from Pixar in May. All of that comes roughly a year after Disney’s announced target of the elimination of 7,000 jobs following Bob Iger’s surprise return to the company in 2023.