HBO Max drops 36 titles as WBD cost-cutting continues

Aquaman: King of Atlantis

HBO Max is to remove 36 more titles from its service, including both original and acquired content, as parent company Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) continues to cut costs.

The newly merged WBD leadership has pledged to make at least $3bn in savings within two years and removing programmes with lower viewership could help the company to save money on residuals payments.

The exact date that these programmes will be removed has yet to be confirmed, but they include HBO Max originals such as 12 Dates Of Christmas, About Last Night, Aquaman: King Of Atlantis, Close Enough, Ellen’s Next Great Designer, Esme & Roy, The Fungies!, Generation Hustle, Generation, Infinity Train, Little Ellen, My Mom, Your Dad, Odo, Ravi Patel’s Pursuit Of Happiness, Summer Island Camp, The Not-Too-Late-Show With Elmo, The Runaway Bunny, Theodosia, Tig n’ Seek and Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs.

HBO Originals being pulled include My Dinner With Herve and Share, while Cartoon Network shows dropped include Dodo, Elliot From Earth, Mao Mao, Heroes of Pure Heart, Mighty Magiswords, OK K.O.! – Let’s Be Heroes, Uncle Grandpa and Victor And Valentino.

Acquired titles disappearing from the service include Detention Adventure, Messy Goes To Okido, Mia’s Magic Playground, The Ollie & Moon Show, Pac-Man And The Ghostly Adventures, Make It Big, Make It Small and Squish.

A “select group of Sesame Street specials” are also being removed.

While HBO Max has been dropping titles from the service for several weeks now, with Hungarian drama The Informant, Swedish comedy Lust and Denmark’s Kamikaze among those to have been taken off, this latest batch represents the largest amount to be removed.

HBO Max said that the decision had been made ahead of the launch of the new WBD streamer, which will combine the service’s content with that of Discovery+, which is also expected to have content removed.

The removals follow the news earlier this week that 14% of HBO and HBO Max staff – around 70 people – are being laid off, also as part of WBD’s cost-cutting efforts.