Times are rough. I got fired from a management company I was working at a year ago; a week before Christmas. That was scary. And that was before this economic recession. I’m just so thankful for what I have going and to be making a living off music. According to some of my friends and Gawker.com:
The 850 layoffs at Viacom today—including hundreds at MTV—are claiming the livelihoods of tons of hardworking people who did their jobs well without ever receiving fame and fortune. And just like when a jumbo jet crashes with hundreds of souls aboard, the first question is: “Were any celebrities involved?” You know you were thinking that, you heartless swine. Well (according to an unconfirmed rumor from an inside tipster), your third-favorite MTV correspondent-for-life, John Norris, was laid off today. After the jump, we’ve got other reports from the Viacom scene.

* “Its bad at Vh1 on Hudson Street. Dozens let go. Security guys on each floor “observing”. Lots of staff across the board gone, some that have been here for many years. The mood is bleak.”
* “Awkward day here at MTVN. I’m a humble Production Assistant for Nickelodeon, and we just found out all we low level staff are okay for the time being. The layoffs on our floor were pretty dramatic: an entire department laid off, and our senior vice president, and a department head at N@N. Looks to be more of a management/higher-up bloodbath from here. And Nickelodeon is one of the few brands actually making money…”
* “I work at 1515 Broadway (the Viacom building) and in the elevators, the newstory about the 850 layoffs keeps coming up on the captivate tvs. Pretty classy…”
* “So far at least 5 people have been let go from MTV.com. Mostly producers and associate producers who were supposed to be creating original content. Well, they haven’t been producing anything for awhile and the writing was on the wall.”