HBO Max to Remove 20 Originals and 36 Titles Overall

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor A decade into the streaming revolution, seams are showing and stitches are starting to pop. The recent uproar about HBO Max removing a significant number of series episodes and movies from its platform amounts to Unintended Consequence No. 9,789 for an industry that has been turned inside out by digital disruption. The situation that Warner Bros. Discovery is scrambling to address by lightening the content load should be crystal clear to anyone who has ever worked in retail sales management. Simply put, HBO Max has an inventory problem. The long-tail theory of content that has fueled the streaming business conflicts with the focus on tentpole hits that has traditionally fueled the entertainment economy.

British pay-TV network Sky expects to continue its relationship with HBO “one way or the other,” as Warner Bros. Discovery’s plans to merge HBO Max and Discovery+ in Europe next year gather pace.

“Elvis” biopic officially has a HBO Max streaming date.The Austin Butler-led film will be streaming on HBO Max next Friday, Sept. 2, 70 days after the film’s opening in theaters on June 24.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer From “The Lego Batman Movie” to just…Batman? While veteran producer Dan Lin is in contention for the top job overseeing DC’s film and TV adaptations for Warner Bros. Discovery, Variety has confirmed that no offer has been made to Lin, and several hurdles stand in the way of any deal moving forward. The biggest hurdle is Lin’s production company, Rideback, which has ties to several other studios, including a first-look deal from January 2021 with Universal Pictures, and development on several features for Disney, including a live-action version of “Lilo & Stitch.” Were Lin to decamp to Warner Bros. Discovery to run DC, his involvement with those productions would need to be sorted, if not severed outright.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Warner Bros. Discovery is laying off 29 people in Europe over the next 15 months as it shifts its originals model for HBO Max, Variety has confirmed. Variety was first to report in July of HBO Max’s decision to retreat from original programming in a number of European markets, and warn of layoffs within the programming team. Under the new model, Warner Bros. Discovery will continue to invest in local European commissions and acquisitions but original programming will be handled by the local linear and streaming teams. No shows will be commissioned solely for streaming.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery is letting go of 29 staff in Europe, including key programming execs, as it moves to phase out HBO Max European originals and shift towards a new local commissioning model, Deadline can reveal.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned that Warner Bros. is making a slew of release date changes next year. First of all, James Wan’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom needs more time in post, so it’s moving from March 17, 2023 to Dec. 25, 2023.

EXCLUSIVE: About 70 people, or 14% of the programming operation overseen by HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys, were laid off last week as part of cost-cutting across Warner Bros. Discovery. At the time, only the departures of the heads of departments that were worst hit — all of them on the HBO Max side — were made public, including Jennifer O’Connell EVP, Non-Fiction & Live-Action Family Originals. Now names of other executives who are leaving as part of the restructuring and staff reductions are starting to trickle out.

200 “Sesame Street” episodes and feature film “Batgirl,” which was slated to be released this year. On Monday, the service also axed six animated projects that were earmarked for HBO Max, including “Batman: The Caped Crusader,” from “The Batman” director Matt Reeves, J.J.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Scott Foley has joined the cast of the upcoming HBO Max series “The Girls on the Bus,” Variety has learned. Foley joins previously announced cast members Melissa Benoist, Christina Elmore, and Natasha Behnam in the show, which was ordered straight-to-series at HBO Max in February after having been set up at both Netflix and The CW. “The Girls on the Bus” is inspired by a chapter in Amy Chozick’s book “Chasing Hillary.” It is described as a comedic character-driven drama that chronicles four female journalists who follow every move of a parade of flawed presidential candidates, while finding friendship, love, and scandal along the way.

Scott Foley (The Big Leap) has been tapped for a key recurring role opposite Melissa Benoist in The Girls On The Bus, HBO Max’s political drama series from Warner Bros. TV.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorCNN sure likes to keep ’em guessing.After canceling media-affairs show “Reliable Sources,” which often tilted at the content of Fox News Channel, CNN plans to air a previously-announced documentary mini-series about that network’s owners.“The Murdochs: Empire of Influence,” a seven-part documentary series previously planned for the now-scuttled streaming site CNN+, will debut on CNN”s flagship cable outlet in the fall. The original series will debut with a two-episode premiere on Sunday, September 25.The series was produced with The New York Times and Left/Right and is based on the New York Times Magazine article “How Rupert Murdoch’s Empire of Influence Remade the World,” by journalists Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg. They serve as consulting producers on the series. The program aims to examine the rise of Rupert Murdoch, his global influence and the battle for succession among his children. In an announcement about the series in February, CNN said the series “charts the high-stakes deal making, political maneuvering and dynastic betrayals — and how the ambitions of one family birthed one of the largest media empires in history.”

Another day, another list of programming that was originally set to arrive on HBO Max but has been prematurely canceled. It’s happening so often, that it’s hard to feign surprise, right? Well, this time the list of cuts includes an animated project that superhero fans had been dying to see— “Batman: Caped Crusader.” According to Variety, HBO Max is continuing to cut children’s and family programming as the streaming service seemingly moves into a new phase of its existence before it combines with Discovery+ in 2023.

Batman: Caped Crusader, an animated series from executive producers Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves, will not be moving forward at HBO Max, sources have confirmed to Deadline. It is among six animated projects, along with family action comedy Merry Little Batman, The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Toons Movie,  Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Toons Musical, Did I Do That To The Holidays: A Steve Urkel Story and The Amazing World Of Gumball: The Movie (working title) that will no longer be produced by HBO Max, but will be shopped, sources say.

Selome Hailu HBO Max has canceled upcoming animated feature film “Driftwood,” Variety has learned. From Cartoon Network Studios, the film was greenlit just three months ago.The family adventure movie is one of many titles being lost at the streamer — just last week, nearly 40 series and films were removed from the platform, such as “Little Ellen,” which had 20 completed episodes that were yet to be released.

Ethan Shanfeld “Little Ellen” co-creator Jennifer Skelly found out her show would be removed from HBO Max earlier this month by reading the news. These past few days, she’s witnessed dozens of other series meet the chopping block as Warner Bros. Discovery purges the HBO streaming platform in order to reduce costs.Not only are the first two seasons of the animated show, centered around a young Ellen DeGeneres, gone from HBO Max.

The upcoming 53rd season will be available on the streaming service, the outlet reported.HBO and “Sesame Street” joined forces in 2015, which gave the streaming service priority to air all new episodes first, before it can be seen on the show’s longtime home, PBS. This agreement is effective until The “Sesame Street” cut comes after HBO made an announcement on Wednesday saying that at least 36 additional shows will be leaving the platform this week. That includes 20 HBO original shows, as well as “Generation,” “Infinity Train,” and earlier this month, all eight of the “Harry Potter” films were axed.Warner Bros.

Major U.S. studios, streamers and British broadcasters have combined to launch a Statement of Commitment Against Bullying, Harassment and Inappropriate Behaviour in TV.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorLeft hand, meet right hand.In what appears to have been an automated response, HBO Max’s customer-help account on Twitter proactively reached out Sunday night to ask the main @hbomax handle if it needed technical help to watch the premiere of “House of the Dragon.”The @hbomax account, about an hour after the 9 p.m. ET premiere of the “Game of Thrones” prequel series, had tweeted, “The only thing that could tear down the House of the Dragon was itself.

John Oliver took another swipe at all the changes happening at Warner Bros. Discovery and this time he addressed the shows getting pulled from HBO Max.

HBO Max is axing about 200 episodes of "Sesame Street" from its streaming platform. Warner Bros. Discovery recently became the new owners of HBO Max, which could tie into the reasoning behind the content purge.

EXCLUSIVE: For all the noise about David Zaslav’s quest to find $3 billion in cost-saving initiatives at the newly merged Warner Bros Discovery, what remains important to the new CEO is to spend on content where those dollars pay off.

saw the removal of 20 originals and 36 titles overall.Removing episodes of “Sesame Street” and other programs means that HBO Max no longer has to pay the related licensing fees to host them on its platform. HBO Max previously housed about 650 “Sesame Street” episodes, including from Seasons 2 through 4, according to Variety, which first reported the news based on initial details from NPR.

and Discovery+ into a single streaming service, and I'm pretty sure a lot of the hand-wringing is due to confusion. It is possible that some fan-favorite shows—including …, Gossip Girl, and —could be on the chopping block even though they were already officially renewed for additional seasons. And the fact that , a rare diverse entry into the DC universe, after the film was already in postproduction certainly has a lot of folks spooked about what could be the next to go.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorBought to you by the letters G-O-N-E: The content purge at HBO Max continues as the streaming platform has pulled about 200 older episodes of classic kids’ show “Sesame Street.”The removal of the “Sesame Street” episodes and other recent content by HBO Max appears to be part of new owner Warner Bros. Discovery’s belt-tightening moves, aimed at reducing streaming-content payment obligations.As of Friday, HBO Max listed 456 total episodes of “Sesame Street,” with a selection from Seasons 1, 5 and 7 and the full lineup from the most recent Seasons 39-52.

EXCLUSIVE: In an email to staffers this morning, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav congratulated the HBO team and the overall conglom on what looks to be a fantastic weekend for both the linear channel and HBO Max in the premiere of The Game of Thrones spinoff, The House of the Dragon. 

Stephen P. Neary, creator of animated series The Fungies!, has slammed HBO Max for pulling his Jennifer Coolidge-voiced show from the service.

Against the eventful corporate backdrop of Warner Bros Discovery trimming expenses and trying to convince Wall Street of its strategy, the company is offering limited-term discounts on streaming service HBO Max for both new and existing subscribers.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorWarner Bros. Discovery is eager to lock in HBO Max customers on annual plans — even as the streamer is culling dozens of titles in a cost-cutting effort.On Thursday, HBO Max launched a new limited-time discount for new and returning customers, offering 30% off in the first year for users who prepay for a yearly subscription plan. Under the deal terms, you can sign up for the HBO Max no-ads yearly plan for $104.99 for the first year (versus $149.99 regularly) or the HBO Max with ads yearly plan for $69.99 for the first year (versus $99.99 regularly).

Wilson Chapman editorHBO Max will remove almost 36 titles from its service as early as this week, Variety has confirmed.A spokesperson for HBO Max attributed the decision to the pending merge of the platform with Discovery+, which is also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.“As we work toward bringing our content catalogs together under one platform, we will be making changes to the content offering available on both HBO Max and discovery+,” HBO Max’s statement reads.

Deadline first reported the news.

EXCLUSIVE: Following the success of his breakout comedy Palm Springs, director Max Barbakow looks to have found his next big studio film as he has boarded the Warner Bros. comedy Disaster Wedding. Dave Holstein is currently rewriting the script with the first draft by Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer. Spider-Man director Jon Watts is producing along with Andrew Kortschak. Jesse Ehrman and Chrystal Lee are overseeing for the studio.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThere’s a new resident making a home in Fox Nation alongside Nancy Grace and the police from “Cops.”Amanda Whittier is a widow trying to make new friends in a small seaside town after the death of her husband. Unlike Grace and the police, Whittier is fictional, a character in a new original movie meant to pluck the heartstrings and continue to broaden the audience on the streaming outlet, which is part of Fox News Media.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeHBO/HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys sent a memo to employees this afternoon, explaining the decision by Warner Bros. Discovery to layoff 70 employees, or 14% of his workforce, as the company restructures.

At the end of a day that saw about 70 (14%) staffers in his divisions getting laid off, Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer for HBO & HBO Max, just sent an email to his team about the cuts as well as his new (old) senior HBO/Max scripted executive team of Amy Gravitt, Francesca Orsi and Sarah Aubrey which includes new responsibilities for Gravitt and Aubrey.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeAfter weeks of speculation, Warner Bros. Discovery is ready to reveal some of the changes that will take place at HBO Max, in advance of next year’s anticipated combination of the HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services. And as expected, HBO Max will downsize its reality programming department.