HBO Max removes nearly 200 ‘Sesame Street’ episodes

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer HBO drama chief Francesca Orsi has extended her contract with the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned pay TV channel through 2026, Variety has confirmed. As part of Orsi’s re-upped pact, she has been given the new title of executive vice president of HBO programming, head of HBO drama series and films. Orsi first joined HBO in 2003 as an executive assistant. She has been the solo head of drama series development and programming since her former co-head David Levine exited in February 2019. They were both appointed to the position originally in 2016. News that Orsi, a direct report to HBO and HBO Max content chief Casey Bloys, will be continuing her tenure at HBO comes on the heels of the enormous launch success for “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon,” a series Orsi has played a big part in developing and marketing.

Selome Hailu Episode 2 of “House of the Dragon” drew in 10.2 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max following its Sunday airing, according to Warner Bros. Discovery. This marks a 2% increase from the premiere episode, which was viewed by nearly 10 million people, according to WBD’s initial count the day after it aired. The premiere, titled “Heirs of the Dragon,” was HBO’s biggest premiere of all time, more than doubling the viewership of its predecessor, “Game of Thrones,” which was watched by 4.2 million people when it premiered in 2011. On Friday, HBO gave the show an early renewal for Season 2, at which point the network said that viewership of the premiere had risen to 20 million.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor A decade into the streaming revolution, seams are showing and stitches are starting to pop. The recent uproar about HBO Max removing a significant number of series episodes and movies from its platform amounts to Unintended Consequence No. 9,789 for an industry that has been turned inside out by digital disruption. The situation that Warner Bros. Discovery is scrambling to address by lightening the content load should be crystal clear to anyone who has ever worked in retail sales management. Simply put, HBO Max has an inventory problem. The long-tail theory of content that has fueled the streaming business conflicts with the focus on tentpole hits that has traditionally fueled the entertainment economy.

To the surprise of no one, especially after the show debuted to the largest audience for an original series in the network’s history, HBO has renewed their “Game Of Thrones” prequel “House Of The Dragon” for a second season. The series premiere drew in nearly 10 million on Sunday night.

has been renewed for season 2. The news comes less than a week after the prequel premiered on HBO, becoming the most viewed debut of any new original series in the premium cable channel’s history. Now seen by over 20 million viewers, the first episode of the series set up a battle of succession for the Iron Throne as it jumped back nearly 200 years to explore the height of the Targaryen family, which reigned over King’s Landing at the time. Adapted from George R.R.

“Game of Thrones” spinoff “House of the Dragon” has been renewed for a Season 2. According to HBO, the series’ premiere episode on Sunday was the largest debut in HBO history and has now been seen by more than 20 million viewers across linear, on-demand and HBO Max platforms. Set around 200 years before the events of “Game of Thrones,” the show follows the antics of House Targaryen — Daenerys and Jon Snow’s ancestors, who are notorious for riding dragons, having silver hair (in a series of increasingly questionable wigs), killing each other and practicing incest. The series premiere set up a premise where King Viserys (Paddy Considine) was anticipating getting a male heir — but things went sideways when he made a medical decision on behalf of his wife, effectively killing her, via a harrowing, medieval cesarean section (which fans responded to on social media).In the end, the baby boy didn’t live, either.

British pay-TV network Sky expects to continue its relationship with HBO “one way or the other,” as Warner Bros. Discovery’s plans to merge HBO Max and Discovery+ in Europe next year gather pace.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer From “The Lego Batman Movie” to just…Batman? While veteran producer Dan Lin is in contention for the top job overseeing DC’s film and TV adaptations for Warner Bros. Discovery, Variety has confirmed that no offer has been made to Lin, and several hurdles stand in the way of any deal moving forward. The biggest hurdle is Lin’s production company, Rideback, which has ties to several other studios, including a first-look deal from January 2021 with Universal Pictures, and development on several features for Disney, including a live-action version of “Lilo & Stitch.” Were Lin to decamp to Warner Bros. Discovery to run DC, his involvement with those productions would need to be sorted, if not severed outright.

Kate Aurthur editor The Aug. 6 address before the assembly at Remnant Fellowship — delivered to an in-person gathering in Brentwood, TN, and via webcast to anyone who might want to watch — began typically enough, with congregants watching an old video sermon from Gwen Shamblin Lara, the church’s late founder who died in a plane crash on May 29, 2021. What happened after the video portion ended, though, was unusual. In a portion of the sermon, obtained by Variety, Elizabeth Hannah, Lara’s daughter and a leader at Remnant, called in, as she sometimes does. But instead of her usual teachings for Saturday service, Hannah delivered a homily of schadenfreude aimed directly at HBO Max, the enemy of Remnant and the Shamblin family.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Warner Bros. Discovery is laying off 29 people in Europe over the next 15 months as it shifts its originals model for HBO Max, Variety has confirmed. Variety was first to report in July of HBO Max’s decision to retreat from original programming in a number of European markets, and warn of layoffs within the programming team. Under the new model, Warner Bros. Discovery will continue to invest in local European commissions and acquisitions but original programming will be handled by the local linear and streaming teams. No shows will be commissioned solely for streaming.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery is letting go of 29 staff in Europe, including key programming execs, as it moves to phase out HBO Max European originals and shift towards a new local commissioning model, Deadline can reveal.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned that Warner Bros. is making a slew of release date changes next year. First of all, James Wan’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom needs more time in post, so it’s moving from March 17, 2023 to Dec. 25, 2023.

EXCLUSIVE: About 70 people, or 14% of the programming operation overseen by HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys, were laid off last week as part of cost-cutting across Warner Bros. Discovery. At the time, only the departures of the heads of departments that were worst hit — all of them on the HBO Max side — were made public, including Jennifer O’Connell EVP, Non-Fiction & Live-Action Family Originals. Now names of other executives who are leaving as part of the restructuring and staff reductions are starting to trickle out.

200 “Sesame Street” episodes and feature film “Batgirl,” which was slated to be released this year. On Monday, the service also axed six animated projects that were earmarked for HBO Max, including “Batman: The Caped Crusader,” from “The Batman” director Matt Reeves, J.J.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Scott Foley has joined the cast of the upcoming HBO Max series “The Girls on the Bus,” Variety has learned. Foley joins previously announced cast members Melissa Benoist, Christina Elmore, and Natasha Behnam in the show, which was ordered straight-to-series at HBO Max in February after having been set up at both Netflix and The CW. “The Girls on the Bus” is inspired by a chapter in Amy Chozick’s book “Chasing Hillary.” It is described as a comedic character-driven drama that chronicles four female journalists who follow every move of a parade of flawed presidential candidates, while finding friendship, love, and scandal along the way.

HBO Max's , which chronicles the multigenerational clan's lavish Texas lifestyle, and the ups and downs in their hectic personal and professional lives. While the first season introduced viewers to patriarch Binh and matriarch Hue, who built a multimillion-dollar real estate and banking empire, and their grown children, Washington and Judy, as they try to live up to their parents' exceedingly high expectations, the new season — premiering Thursday — peels back the layers and aims to go deeper into the fabric of the Ho family.In season 2, Washington charts his journey to stay sober while re-evaluating his career, while Judy enjoys engaged life with fiance Nate Nguyễn as she undergoes IVF in an effort to become pregnant.

Scott Foley (The Big Leap) has been tapped for a key recurring role opposite Melissa Benoist in The Girls On The Bus, HBO Max’s political drama series from Warner Bros. TV.

Another day, another list of programming that was originally set to arrive on HBO Max but has been prematurely canceled. It’s happening so often, that it’s hard to feign surprise, right? Well, this time the list of cuts includes an animated project that superhero fans had been dying to see— “Batman: Caped Crusader.” According to Variety, HBO Max is continuing to cut children’s and family programming as the streaming service seemingly moves into a new phase of its existence before it combines with Discovery+ in 2023.

is off to a flying start. HBO's prequel — set 200 years before Daenerys Targaryen's quest for the Iron Throne — scored nearly 10 million viewers in its Sunday night debut, making it the most highly-rated original new series premiere in the history of HBO. Officially, the cable network reports 9.986 million viewers across both linear and HBO Max streaming platforms in the United States on Sunday night -- even as the streaming app crashed on Amazon Fire TV devices, leaving a portion of potential viewers in the dark. A press release from HBO indicates that Sunday's viewership is expected to make up just a small portion — 20 to 40 percent — of the show's total gross audience. While a direct comparison would be impossible to nail down -- due in part to shifting landscapes in streaming and evolving fandoms — the and both note that first season premiered to 4.2 million viewers in 2011, while its eighth and final season premiere was watched by a record-setting 17.9 million people in 2019. brings to life George R.R.