Report Says HBO Max To Cut Staff As They Merge With HBO

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Viewer Question:
Luis Enrique De La Peña - Good morning, Campea Crew! It looks like the axe of Zaslav is getting bigger and thirstier. There's a new report that suggests Discovery might be laying off up to 70% of the HBO Max dev staff from scripted content. I have 2 questions: Does this mean that HBO Max might be shutting down later this year? Could their IPs be on hold (DC, The House of the Dragon, etc.) until the merger is finalized? I'd like to hear your thoughts. Thanks and BOTF!

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[richardallen]

Most peoples' concerns...which John seemed to ignore...was existing HBO Max original shows that are not on HBO being canceled due to the cutbacks and cost saving.

[myfilms]

John I appreciate you clearing up some misconceptions, but they've have removed Hbo Max exclusive films from the app like Seth Rogen's An American Pickle and more. They've also taken some HBO original shows off the app like Vinyl, a show produced and directed by Martin fucking Scorsese.

This is a problem, and it's bad

[keefriff]

I don’t trust this Zaslav guy one bit. The cheap, Z-grade trash he peddles on “Discovery” tells me everything I need to know.

[hencecovers]

[note: Copy & paste of my own comment from elsewhere] All Due respect to John & the Gang here… & I get that John wants to keep things cheery & positive (that’s John’s gift)… but sometimes this show comes across as shilling for the Corporations, rather than the Creatives & the Consumers. Corporatist apologia, if you will.

Not all the great decisions in fandom were made by these ‘Ayn-Randian’ CEO types …

If the suites had their way, we’d never have gotten ‘Iron Man’… RDJr was a liability at the time… Jon Favreau didn’t have a hugely successful track record with blockbuster filmmaking … & Iron Man was considered a C-list Marvel character…

I also think of David Lynch… after Dune in the 80s he was a laughing stock.

But Dino De Laurentiis liked David Lynch as a person… so David Lynch was given the opportunity to do ‘Blue Velvet’ which leads to ‘Twin Peaks’ … and ‘Twin Peaks’ completely changed the television landscape … arguably the invention of ‘Prestige Television’ as a phenomena

So I would argue that friendships and bonds built upon trust (& not merely financial interests) CAN lead to utter Sea Changes in the industry… so just keep that in mind before you jump to defend these “tough decisions” made by Corporate Interests (rather than Creative ones).

[KingOfMadCows]

Zaslav is making cuts everywhere except for his own $246 million compensation package.

[anthonyscarborough]

John you’re ignoring three important concerns:
1. People are mostly worried about Max originals, not HBO shows.
2. It’s not 2020 anymore. Lots of people know the difference between HBO and HBO Max. HBO Max is an extremely versatile streaming service, and people are scared of losing that.
3. Yes, scripted shows aren’t going away completely. But there will be less of them and that’s still bad.

[Hicks-gm]

First netflix loses subs and now HBO Max is having a hard time streaming is a big mess

[DanielHaygood]

John you completely ignored that HBO Max original content is being taken off the platform entirely. Why?

[zipblockarchives]

I'm not putting faith into David Zaslav until I see positive results with DC content.

[HibbySloth]

I'm worried about animation from Warner. Lots of shows like Harley Quinn and Looney Tunes Cartoons don't deserve the axe they'll likely get.

I'm so sick of studio execs viewing animation as the single most expendable media branch they have.

[markwilliams]

A lot of stuff can make sense for warner bros discovery while also having a shitton of shaky leadership being shown. Cutting so much staff, getting bad pr and losing trust with certain creators. Now today their stupid slides that show hbo max as male skewed and discovery as female skewed. A bunch of weird stuff and a lot of defending about someone who wants to maximized the money the most.

[FrankFerder]

I see what you did there John... it's like promising your kid your taking him to the happiest place on earth and than you end up in Knotts Berry Farm. Nice Spin! But yeah HBO Max is dead.

[michaeljordan]

That HBO Max for the intelligent boys vs Discovery for the "laid back" women has gone viral

[bluray]

So on another channel saying Hbo Max is done and yeah I checked they got rid of originals american pickle and withches. Before all y’all say who cares, it does matter. Those were max originals. Why take that off. Hope your right John but I’m still little skeptical

[jackson]

House of the Dragon is a HBO original not a HBO Max original so it would be fine even if it was true that HBO Max was getting cut.

[gammaray]

Thumbs up to Kris for pronouncing Luis Enríquez de la Peña, especially for pronouncing the eñe.

[dacripe]

Yeah John, but reports all day were saying HBO Max was being absorbed into Discovery+ and wiped off the map. We know they are merging, but figured HBO would be in the name somewhere and that it would be the prominent streaming service (not the other way around as was being speculated yesterday). HBO and WB are more brand name than Discovery, so Zaslav would be an idiot to remove the HBO name from streaming.

[Blazecap]

No mention of them removing HBO max original movies without warning?

[liferealgood]

Honestly I remember when they came out with HBO max and thought that’s dumb what is the point of HBO now and HBO Go. I didn’t think I would get Max until it was offered for free and I subscribed. Fast forward to now and I forgot all about Go and Now. I thought they got rid of them.

[NoLifeGrogu]

I could be completely wrong about this but I believe it’s all of the HBO Max Originals that are in trouble both movies & shows. HBO will continue to make their projects but the HBO Max Originals are potentially getting canceled & removed, reportedly some of the movies that were exclusively HBO Max Originals have already been removed from the platform. I think that’s why everyone is panicking a bit because it looks like some of the content on HBO Max will be gone.