Paramount+ Hit Rocked by Turmoil After Layoffs Decried as Unprofessional

Well, this escalated fast. Tulsa King is heading into Season 4 with 26 crew cuts, no formal showrunner, and a whole lot of behind-the-scenes drama. All of this is happening while reports say Taylor Sheridan will leave Paramount+ for NBC Universal at the end of 2028. Crew who got let go are not exactly sending fruit baskets.

What changed, and how fast?

In the weeks before Season 4 was set to shoot, more than two dozen staffers were told they were out. One of them was Emmy-nominated stunt coordinator Freddie Poole, who has worked with Sylvester Stallone for 14 years. He says the way it went down was sloppy and last-minute — which tracks with how others are describing it too.

"The manner in which this was done was just unprofessional and unnecessary."

Poole says some people were told after Season 3 to leave their gear at the stages, then a week before cameras were supposed to roll on Season 4 they were told they didn’t have a job. A lot of crew assumed they would be coming back anyway — the series picked up a two-year renewal in 2024, with Stallone securing his deal, so the expectation was continuity.

The specific hits

• 26 staffers were let go across departments like transportation, photography, stunts, rigging, sound, and camera.
• Freddie Poole says he was told he was out for creative reasons; he was offered a photo double gig instead and declined.
• Sylvester Stallone’s stand-in, Chad Gregory, only found out he was replaced when a friend spotted his job posted elsewhere for $400/day — he had been making $250/day.
• Season 3 showrunner Dave Erickson is gone, and Season 4 is moving forward without a formal showrunner.
• 101 Studios executive Scott Stone is effectively filling the gap on the production side with unit production managers Rebecca Rivo and Christian Agypt. None of them are handling the writing or directing.
• Terence Winter, who left after Season 1, returned in Season 2 as executive producer and head writer and is back in that capacity for Season 4, which may be part of the creative reshuffle.
• All of this is unfolding while reports say Taylor Sheridan will exit Paramount+ for NBC Universal at the end of 2028.

The human side

Poole, who has three decades in the business, says he has never seen turnover like this and called it a gut punch to the Atlanta film community. Chad Gregory was blunt too — he’s not interested in outside opinions from people who aren’t getting hit by this stuff in real time.

Poole also says he got a heads-up from 101 Studios’ Scott Stone that there would be no showrunner for Season 4 before filming began. That was his warning sign to start looking after himself.

Why the shake-up?

Depends on who you ask. Insiders will tell you crew turnover happens between seasons and that some positions simply aren’t being backfilled because of budget cuts. Others point to the shifting creative leadership and the lack of a traditional showrunner as a major factor. Both can be true.

The bigger corporate picture

The Tulsa King layoffs are landing alongside wider cuts. Under new CEO David Ellison, Paramount has been trimming headcount: 1,000 U.S. jobs were cut in October, with another 1,000 expected in a second wave. That kind of belt-tightening trickles down to the productions themselves, and you can feel it here.

Where this leaves Season 4

Season 4 is moving forward, just with a leaner crew and an unconventional leadership structure. That doesn’t automatically mean the show on screen will suffer — we’ll see — but from the crew side, the rollout was messy and morale-killing. Not exactly the lead-up you want for a hit that’s supposed to be on a two-year glide path.