Wiatt Out, Itkin In

Willam Morris Agency chief Jim Wiatt will apparently not survive the company’s merger with Endeavor, and will be replaced on the combined firm’s board of directors by Mark Itkin, the head of WMA’s nonscripted TV department.

After a flurry of rumors that Wiatt would be eased out of the chairmanship of the new board before it was even created, Variety reports that the new board decided that the new WME Entertainment “would be better off without” the exec who guided the merger.

The leadership of the putative new board said they “want to get through the shakeup of the layoffs and Wiatt’s departure in order to allow the agencies to quickly begin functioning as a unified entity,” Variety reported.

With some 120 staffers receiving pink slips and all but WMA’s music division agents moving into Endeavor’s office, sources told the trade paper that morale further hurt Wiatt’s standing.