“Red Table Talk” got the boot after Meta unplugged Facebook Watch’s original programming.
Amid broad cost-cutting moves, Meta is shuttering the Facebook Watch originals group, whose small slate of shows included the breakout hit “Red Table Talk” hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith
Meta implements wide-ranging cost cuts across the company, with the most recent including a round of layoffs that is expected to impact 10,000 employees. Included in the cuts is Mina Lefevre, the former MTV executive who led development and original programming for Facebook Watch.
A Meta representative confirmed that the company is shuttering its originals group but declined to provide further comment.
One of Facebook Watch’s most well-known shows was Red Table Talk, the talk show co-hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris.
The series had five seasons on Facebook Watch and led to a spinoff series, Red Table Talk: The Estefans, with Gloria Estefan, Emily Estefan and Lili Estefan.
The original series debuted in 2018 and featured conversations that sparked widespread conversation online, including episodes that dived into the tumultuous moments of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s marriage.
“Red Table Talk” has 11 million followers on Facebook and spawned an active Facebook discussion group with 600,000 members. Westbook also produced a spinoff,
Guests from the last season, which concluded in December, included iCarly star Jennette McCurdy, Shark Tank mogul Barbara Corcoran, Crazy Rich Asians star Constance Wu and Glass Onion star Janelle Monáe, among others.
Other programming on the Meta-run platform has included the drama series Sorry for Your Loss, which starred Elizabeth Olsen as a widow grieving her husband and was canceled after two seasons; the unscripted series Simone vs. Herself with Olympian Simone Biles; the interview show Steve with Steve Harvey; and the reality series JoJo Goes with JoJoSiwa.
Meta’s shutdown of Facebook Watch originals comes after other tech companies have similarly retreated.
Snapchat shuttered its originals group last summer as part of a broader cost-cutting move, while YouTube folded most of its original productions while maintaining a slate of kids’ content and programming from its Black Voices fund.
