Court TV is laying off dozens of staff following its acquisition by rival Law & Crime, with only about a dozen of the network's roughly 50 employees expected to remain, Law & Crime has confirmed.
Dozens of Court TV employees announced their job losses on LinkedIn on Monday. Among those affected is Kerry O’Connor, Court TV’s director of operations and executive producer of network programming, who thanked her colleagues in a post.
Former Court TV anchor Dan Abrams, now chief executive of Law & Crime, said the network will continue as a linear cable channel and remain a separate brand, while shifting to a YouTube-first, digital-first strategy. Current Scripps programming will continue through March 11, after which Law & Crime’s new programming will take over.
Scripps, which acquired Court TV from Turner Broadcasting in 2018, owns 60 stations across more than 40 markets. Its shares have fallen about 95 percent over the past year as viewers move to streaming, and the company is managing roughly $2.7 billion in debt while fending off a takeover attempt by Sinclair.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources told The New York Times the sale values the network at under $125 million. Abrams founded Law & Crime in 2015 and sold it to Jellysmack in 2023 for around $125 million, remaining as chief executive.
