Explained: Why did Matt Cohen leave Entertainment Tonight?

According to The Wrap, American actor and filmmaker Matt Cohen is no longer with Entertainment Tonight. The entertainment news show recently got rid of 10% of its staff. Cohen was one of the victims of this layoff. He had been with the company since 2019 and served as the weekend co-anchor.

Apart from Cohen, several other individuals have been let go. The list includes on-air correspondent Will Marfuggi, who joined in September 2022, supervising producer Tricia Durrant, post-production supervisor Shannon Duston, senior graphics producer Erik Photenhauer, supervising producer of content acquisition Spencer Bergen, senior editor of TV and streaming Stacy Lambe, and senior writer/editor Philiana Ng.

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Matt Cohen's exit from Entertainment Tonight explained

According to Variety, a staff-wide Zoom call had taken place on Wednesday where several members of Entertainment Tonight's staff learned that they were being let go from the company. The show has reduced its programming in the last few months and a step like this was inevitable.

Almost 20 people were laid off. However, Variety also reported that "Mass layoffs" was out of the question. A number of people would remain employed. Two of the biggest axed names are Matt Cohen and Will Marfuggi.

Matt Cohen was born in Miami, Florida, and pursued acting after graduating from college. He is best known for playing young John Winchester and the archangel Gabriel in The CW show, Supernatural. He even played Aiden Dennison in South of Nowhere and Griffin Munro in General Hospital.

Cohen is married to Mandy Musgrave, his co-star from the show South of Nowhere. The couple has an 8-year-old son named Macklin.

The reason behind this layoff was the merger between the website ET Online and the digital network ET Live back in 2019. After the merger, A CBS Television Distribution spokeswoman said,

"We have integrated the ET Online and ET Live teams to create one content group that will support and drive the ET brand across all digital platforms."

She continued,

"As a result, some positions were reduced."

Cohen co-anchored the weekend edition with Nischelle Turner and Kevin Frazier. Sometimes he even appeared on the weekday show. It hasn't been revealed if either Cohen or Will Marfuggi will make a final appearance or not.

Marfuggi used to cover comic book films like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and even popular large-scale shows like The Lord of the Rings, House of the Dragon, etc.

An “Entertainment Tonight” spokesperson declined to comment on the news.

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What is Entertainment Tonight?

Entertainment Tonight is first-run syndicated news broadcasting newsmagazine program. With Paramount Streaming serving as its owner, it is distributed by CBS Media Ventures in the USA. In Australia, it is shown on Network 10.

According to the company's website, they describe themselves as,

"Entertainment Tonight is the global leader in celebrity news bringing audiences exclusive interviews, breaking news, behind the scenes access, and more for over 40 years. As the undisputed industry leader, ET is always the first stop for stars on red carpets spanning the globe."

It further states,

"From exclusive interviews in London, Paris, Germany, Africa, Australia, the ET brand is synonymous with excellence on every continent. ET is also a multi-platform entertainment news brand, with a cross-screen portfolio that includes the #1 entertainment newsmagazine on television and the #1 in entertainment news videos online."

The company's leadership team includes Executive Producer Erin Johnson and Co-Executive Producers Whitney Wallace and Leslie Kawaguchi.