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

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:

• Haute Dog, the better of the two dog grooming reality competitions
• Full Bloom, the floral arranging reality show that aired two seasons

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

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