Max Purges Over 200 Seasons of Television As It Pivots Back to the HBO Brand

A few years ago, WarnerMedia merged with the Discovery brand — the Discovery Channel, HGTV, Animal Planet, Food Network, etc. — and added a whole lot of content to the Max platform that the typical HBO viewer may not have been particularly interested in. After all, there’s probably not a lot of crossover between fans of House of the Dragon and the Chip and Joanna Gaines Fixer Upper universe, but Max was hellbent on competing with Netflix and being everything for everybody.

It didn’t work. There’s only one Netflix, and Max has recently waved the white flag, acknowledging that they’ve lost to Netflix. “We did an assessment of what subscribers were watching,” HBO President Casey Bloys told Puck this week. “We did a lot of research and focus groups. The things subscribers want from us are HBO programming, scripted dramas, comedies, documentaries, the pay-one \[licensing window] movies, library movies, and basically the Warner Bros. TV library.”

You mean people who subscribe to HBO actually prefer HBO content? That’s evident in some of the moves Max has been making. At the end of March, for instance, they updated their logo again, leaning into the HBO prestige brand. Viewers may have also noticed that the Discovery/HGTV-type programming that used to share space with HBO and Max in the upper fold of their streaming platform has essentially been relegated to the bottom tiers. CNNMax has a higher profile than most of the home makeover shows. You actually have to hunt to find new episodes of Castle Impossible or Love It or List It.

“What people want from us is the Warner Bros. movies, the library, the HBO content, and the scripted,” Bloys added, and that’s reflected in the top ten list of television and movies on the platform, which is dominated by Warner Bros. movies and HBO television series.

And just as they did when HBO pivoted away from children’s programming and animation, the platform is now starting to shed back seasons of Food Network, Discovery, and TLC series. According to RealityTV (via a Reddit list of purged seasons), the platform has vanquished 239 seasons of television, including the first 46 seasons of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, 27 seasons of Ghost Adventures, several seasons of My 600lb Life, many 90 Day Fiancé spin-offs, and more.

Basically, Zaslav is conceding that the merger may not have been the best idea. Personally, while I certainly feel compassion for all the residuals that may be lost, I am heartened by the pivot back to what makes HBO the reason people subscribe to Max: quality scripted programming with an emphasis on quality. Guy Fieri is great and all, but give me more Carrie Coon and Bella Ramsey any day.

Unfortunately, that will also soon include the Harry Potter series, though I remain skeptical about its potential success.