In April of this year, Warner Bros and Discovery merged to the tune of $43 billion. The amount of programming that fell under their umbrella was ridiculous. Of course, when you allow one entity to control that much of something, they are going to screw it up. Enter David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Zaslav is vying for the most hated person in media, apparently. His current target is what should be his flagship, HBO. After years of restructuring their programming and major hits dominating the market, Zaslav is gutting HBO in what he’s calling budget cuts. Not only did he lay off 14% of the staff in August and told France they can’t have HBO Max anymore, now he’s tearing up our favorite shows. Last month, Westworld got the ax. Monday, it was announced they would be shelving The Nevers, Minx and Love Life.
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is continuing to strip HBO Max of content as part of its cost-saving measures, with recently canned Westworld pulled and sci-fi drama The Nevers and comedies Love Lifeand Minx cancelled.
The decisions were made as HBO Max undergoes an end-of-year financial review by WBD, prompting the cuts as the media giant attempts to reach its savings target.
HBO sci-fi drama Westworld was axed last month after four seasons. Once a ratings and awards draw for the network, the series has seen declining viewership and – as a high-cost production – comes as WBD looks to make $3.5bn in savings following the $43bn merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery.
Fellow sci-fi drama The Nevers, meanwhile, aired the first half of its first season in 2021, with Deadline reporting that the show will now conclude the season on another WBD platform, with the final episode written so as to conclude the show entirely. The US trade said that existing episodes of Westworld are also expected to find a new home on another WBD service, potentially in the FAST space.
HBO Max has meanwhile cancelled Love Life, dropping the show after two seasons. The romantic comedy anthology was the first original scripted series for the streamer and will now be removed from the platform entirely.
Minx, the 1970s-set comedy series which launched on HBO Max earlier this year, has also been dropped by the platform after one season. The second season has nearly completed production, however, and producer-distributor Lionsgate TV plans to find both seasons of the show a new home.
“We have enjoyed a good partnership with HBO Max and are working closely to find a new opportunity for Minx, so current, and new viewers, can continue this journey with us,” said Lionsgate TV.
These latest cancellations and show removals come just days after HBO Max pulled comedy series Gordita Chronicles from the service and cancelled Sweet Life: Los Angeles after two seasons.
[From Television Business International]
As the article said, Minx is almost finished filming. Although it’s not HBO, Zaslav is also the guy who refused to release Batgirl after it had been filmed. So riddle me that, Batman – how exactly does not earning money off things you’ve spent money on make your target? I’m sure it’s all taxes, distribution and promotion numbers. Or that’s what they’re telling themselves. What I see is a bunch of female fronted programming disappearing. Maybe don’t spend $43 billion to eat up and homogenize half of network programming, there’s some financial advice for you.
I’m not going to miss Westworld, I never made it past the second episode. But I know it was popular and people were not happy with it being cancelled. I haven’t watched The Nevers. It’s a Joss Whedon show so I won’t say I’m glad it’s not coming back, because there are actors and crew losing jobs, but so is Joss Whedon sooo… However, I do watch both Love Life and Minx and I am upset about them. I appreciated Love Life because they showed the protagonist maturing into their ultimate relationship. It felt organic. Even though I wanted to clobber both Darby and Marcus so many times, I related to many of their mistakes. I understood their messy and the messiness of their friends and lovers. Some of their exes weren’t bad people, just immature or rudderless. It was a good examination of someone’s romantic evolution. But Minx is going to break my heart if it doesn’t find a new home. It’s well written and the characters feel like friends. Don’t get me started on the set-design – I thought I was watching home movies. Not the Minx offices, of course, my folks weren’t nudists. But the homes and buildings. And it was another brilliant vehicle for Jake Johnson we’re losing (RIP Stumptown). I haven’t even broken the news to my husband yet. He just asked me Friday when Minx was coming back. I have never routed for Lionsgate more.
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