Why So Many HBO Max Shows Are in Danger of Getting Canceled

Mark Ronson has paid fresh tribute to Taylor Hawkins, saying that the “beloved” late drummer “should have played on thousands more recordings”.Ronson spoke to NME as part of this week’s special Big Read cover feature, which offers an in-depth and behind-the-scenes look at the recent star-studded Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in London.The producer made a guest appearance at this month’s Wembley Stadium event, teaming up with Dave Grohl‘s daughter Violet for a performance of The Zutons‘ ‘Valerie’ (made famous by Ronson’s 2007 hit cover with Amy Winehouse).Speaking to NME after the show, Ronson explained: “It was Taylor’s day but it felt like the theme of that day was very much about all the other rock ’n’ roll legends that are unfortunately not with us, whether that’s Bowie, Jeff Buckley or Amy.“Without taking the shine away from Taylor, I was just singing about everyone who should still be jamming with us.”He continued: “I knew Taylor a fraction as well as most of the other people performing, but it was amazing to be around all these other people who love Taylor, listening to stories about him, because it felt like spending a little more time with him.“We were texting three days before he passed about cutting some records.

Sugarcubes drummer Siggi Baldursson has spoken of his time working with Björk, including the time she tried out the song ‘Human Behaviour’ with the band.Björk enjoyed international success with the Icelandic post-punk band before they disbanded in 1992 and she went on to release her first solo album ‘Debut’ in 1993. That album’s lead single ‘Human Behaviour’ started life when she wrote the melody in her younger years, and later brought it to sessions with The Sugarcubes.Speaking to Uncut for a wider cover interview with Björk for their November issue,  Baldursson recalled his years of working with the artist – having first witnessed her performing with punk band Tappi Tíkarrass in 1981.pic.twitter.com/QQd7YcyEv4— Uncut Magazine (@uncutmagazine) September 15, 2022“Björk was just 16, but even in soundcheck, it was pure performance,” he said.

For Becky G, providing for her family has always been one of her top priorities in life.

Roger Federer, one of tennis’ all-time great players, has announced his retirement from the sport, saying, he knows his “body’s capacities, and limits and its message to me lately have been clear.”

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.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor When Brian Stelter signed off from the last installment of CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Aug. 21, the number of mainstream vehicles analyzing an increasingly confusing media industry shrank even further.  Stelter bid farewell the same day Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan ended her run — asking such notables as Carl Bernstein and Jeffrey Goldberg on air whether the press is doing enough to cover topics ranging from disinformation to climate change. The lead story of his hour was a dire one: his program’s own cancellation after three decades. “It’s going to be on you to hold CNN accountable,” Stelter told viewers in the show’s waning moments, later adding: “The free world needs a reliable source.” 

When you get fired from a job, you aren’t able to take your favorite stapler, your keyboard, or any other favorite supplies home with you. The company has every right to make sure its property doesn’t leave.

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.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix is bringing “Heads Up!”, the charades game that originated on Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime talk show, into the Upside Down — and into the worlds of the streamer’s other original shows. The streamer is launching an exclusive version of the “Heads Up!” mobile game that will include 28 new decks from top Netflix series including “Stranger Things,” “Squid Game,” “Shadow and Bone,” “Bridgerton” and “Selling Sunset” as well as entertainment-themed decks in categories like rom-coms and true crime. Netflix launched its version of “Heads Up!” on Tuesday. Netflix’s edition of the game is available in English and 13 additional languages on Android and iOS devices, available to streaming subscribers for no additional cost.

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.

Ethan Shanfeld Earlier this month, Warner Bros. Discovery kicked off a wave of cancellations and cost-cutting measures by scrapping DC’s $90 million “Batgirl” movie starring Leslie Grace, which was already in post-production. In a new interview with French outlet Skript, “Batgirl” co-directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah revealed that the studio blocked their access to footage after axing the film. “Adil called and told me, ‘Go ahead. Shoot everything on your mobile,'” Fallah said. “I went on the server … Everything was gone.” El Arbi added: “We were like, ‘Fucking shit!’ All the scenes with Batman in them!”

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.

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.

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.

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.

Brian Stelter is out as CNN’s chief media correspondent and host of “Reliable Sources,” which will be canceled upon his departure — an expected move, given the show’s low ratings and an expressed desire by the network’s new leadership to move away from opinion-based news programming.Stelter’s exit comes less than four months after Chris Licht took over as head of CNN, following reports that the CEO was not a fan of Stelter’s opinionated on-camera style. Licht informed Stelter of the decision on Wednesday, and this Sunday will be the final episode of “Reliable Sources.”“I’m grateful for my nine years with CNN, proud of what we accomplished on ‘Reliable Sources’ and so thankful for the viewers who tuned in every week for our examination of the media, truth and the stories that shape our world,” Stelter said in a statement obtained by TheWrap.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAnd now some news about the news program that covers the news.“Reliable Sources,” the media-news program that has been on CNN since 1993, is the latest piece of content to go on the chopping block under the cost-cutting regime of Warner Bros. Discovery.

combine HBO Max and Discovery+ next summer. “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 said in a statement Wednesday.

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.

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.

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.

The dreaded post-merger Warner Bros. Discovery layoffs have reached the programming operation overseen by HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys.