HBO
Last week, Warner Bros. Discovery announced on its Q2 earnings call that it was not only planning to merge HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single streaming platform, but that it would also be killing a number of projects for tax write-offs presumably to compensate for its low earnings-per-share. A regulatory filing clarified the sum: an $825 million write-down.
Among the projects receiving the chop were a $90 million Batgirl film that was well into production and the animated feature Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, both of which were set to premiere on HBO Max. They also shut down a Wonder Twins film, a number of shows at TBS and TNT (e.g. Chad, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Last O.G., and Snowpiercer), and, of course, CNN+.
While discussing the U.S.’s embarrassing monkeypox vaccine rollout, and how the country let 20 million doses of the monkeypox vaccine expire, John Oliver took a few shots at the much-discussed merger on Sunday’s edition of Last Week Tonight—airing on the Warner Bros. Discovery-run HBO.