Skip to Content
reality TV reviews, news, and analysis since 2000

HBO Max is deleting these 6 reality shows, and fired the team behind Legendary, Fboy Island

HBO Max is deleting these 6 reality shows, and fired the team behind Legendary, Fboy Island
Amanda Grace Jenkins and Markelle Smith in 12 Dates of Christmas season 2, one of the shows HBO Max is deleting soon. (Photograph by Joe Magnani/HBO Max)

As part of the merger between Discovery and WarnerMedia, the new company, Warner Bros. Discovery, is trying to save money. A lot of money: it has $50 billion in debt, and “vowed to find $3 billion worth of savings,” as The New York Times reported.

Those “savings” are coming in the form of two things: 1) actual human beings’ jobs, and 2) content including reality TV shows.

First, Warner Bros. Discovery fired the executive and team of people who developed its original reality TV series, such as Legendary, Fboy Island, and Selena + Chef.

They’ve said those shows may continue, but Deadline noted that “HBO Max was known to pay between $1.5 million-$2 million per episode of some of its unscripted shows, well above Discovery’s usual tariffs, which generally go as high as around $500,000 per hour.” That’s a huge difference—and explains the huge difference in quality.

It’s also dropping already-produced projects, including Batgirl; the second season of the wonderful sitcom Chad; and the completed TBS reality series The Big D, starring JoJo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers. That form of accounting is called a “write-down,” and they’re doing a lot of it.

Part of that is removing existing content. As Indiewire reported earlier this month, those are shows that “have an opportunity for a partial write off.”

Among the reality shows already deleted are:

Years earlier, HBO Max deleted Karma, a competition very much like Endurance, which premiered along with HBO Max and then mysteriously disappeared a few months later.

This evening, HBO Max just sent an announcement to media saying that 37 shows “will be coming off of HBO Max this week.” The company offered this explanation:

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+. That will include the removal of some content from both platforms.

At the same time, we’re already starting to bring our content catalogs together like the launch of the new CNN Originals Hub on discovery+ and a curated collection of Magnolia Network content coming soon to HBO Max.

The shows HBO Max is deleting next

Warner Bros. Discovery

This news, while distressing, is a good reminder that any show you rely on being available now may be gone soon.

The unscripted shows HBO Max is dumping this week (when exactly? *shrug emoji*) are:

  • 12 Dates of Christmas, a two-season dating series that was one of the few to have queer leads
  • About Last Night, on which Stephen and Ayesha Curry quizzed celebrity couples about their relationships
  • Ellen’s Next Great Designer, a reboot of an HGTV show
  • Generation Hustle, a documentary series that profiled “brilliant and brazen young individuals,” including Anna Delvey
  • My Mom, Your Dad, a dating show produced by The Office EP Greg Daniels
  • Ravi Patel’s Pursuit of Happiness, which followed the actor as he went “on a trip around the world as he investigates societal norms in search of answers to some of life’s most pressing questions.”

Somehow, Bethenny Frankel’s awful new show is not on the list.

Here’s the full list of shows HBO just announced it’s removing:

  1. 12 Dates of Christmas
  2. About Last Night
  3. Aquaman: King of Atlantis
  4. Close Enough
  5. Detention Adventure
  6. Dodo
  7. Ellen’s Next Great Designer
  8. Elliott From Earth
  9. Esme & Roy
  10. The Fungies! 
  11. Generation Hustle 
  12. Genera+ion
  13. Infinity Train
  14. Little Ellen 
  15. Mao Mao, Heroes of Pure Heart
  16. Messy Goes to Okido
  17. Mia’s Magic Playground
  18. Mighty Magiswords
  19. My Dinner with Herve
  20. My Mom, Your Dad
  21. Odo
  22. OK K.O.! – Let’s Be Heroes
  23. The Ollie & Moon Show
  24. Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
  25. Ravi Patel’s Pursuit of Happiness
  26. Select Sesame Street Specials 
  27. Make It Big, Make It Small
  28. Share
  29. Squish
  30. Summer Camp Island
  31. The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo 
  32. The Runaway Bunny – Special
  33. Theodosia
  34. Tig n’ Seek 
  35. Uncle Grandpa
  36. Victor and Valentino
  37. Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs

All reality blurred content is independently selected, including links to products or services. However, if you buy something after clicking an affiliate link, I may earn a commission, which helps support reality blurred. Learn more.

More from reality blurred

About the author

  • Andy Dehnart

    Andy Dehnart is the creator of reality blurred and a writer and teacher who obsessively and critically covers reality TV and unscripted entertainment, focusing on how it’s made and what it means.

Discussion: your turn

I think of writing about television as the start of a conversation, and I value your contributions to that conversation. We’ve created a community that connects people through open and thoughtful conversations about the TV we’re watching and the stories about it.

To share our perspectives and exchange ideas in a welcoming, supportive space, I’ve created these rules for commenting here. By commenting below, you confirm that you’ve read and agree to those rules.

Happy discussing!

Please stop

Thursday 18th of August 2022

No one cares. No one watches those shows in the first place. Imagine a business doing a thing that's good for business. Shocking.

Lo

Thursday 18th of August 2022

I've never heard of any of these shows. I agree that quality is better than quantity but I'm very wary of mergers and how their CEO's make decisions because it is all about the bottom line.