HBO Max Cancels Another Major Show

Another major HBO Max show has been shown the exit. FBoy Island, a reality dating series hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser, was canceled on Monday, Variety reports. The move is not a surprise, as HBO Max has cut back significantly on reality programming since the Warner Bros. Discovery merger was completed in April.

FBoy Island was filmed in the Cayman Islands and featured three female contestants and 24 male contestants. The men were divided by “nice guys” who want to have serious relationships and “fboys” who do not. The women have to weed out the fboys and hope to end with a nice guy. The nice guys are also competing for a $100,000 cash prize they intend to split with their new partner, while fboys can choose to take the entirety of the cash prize fo themselves if they win. This was HBO Max’s first reality television show.

Since the Warner Bros. Discovery merger was finalized, CEO David Zaslav’s major goal has been to find $3 billion in savings over the next three years. The most high-profile cancelation was the Batgirl movie, which was almost completed. Warner Bros. Discovery also quietly removed dozens of shows from HBO Max.

HBO Max’s unscripted unit was also a major focus for cost-cutting since Discovery already has countless popular unscripted reality shows. In August, it was reported that about 14% of the HBO/HBO Max staff would be laid off, with a focus on the reality television division. FBoy Island and other existing HBO Max shows were expected to survive, but all development on future HBO Max reality shows would stop. Other HBO Max unscripted shows included Kraftopia, Legendary, The Big Brunch, Sweet Life: Los Angeles, and Selena + Chef. None of these shows have been renewed since April.

FBoy Island was initially popular enough for HBO Max to announce local versions in Denmark, Sweden, Spain, and The Netherlands in April. BBC Three also picked up the rights to air a U.K. version. New Zealand broadcaster TVNZ also aired a local version this fall.

Last month, Zaslav said the combined HBO Max-Discovery+ streaming service will launch in spring 2023, earlier than expected. The company has not announced a new name for the service, which will likely cost more than HBO Max. Warner Bros. Discovery reported that the streamers have a combined 94.9 million subscribers.

“We expect a healthy inflection with the launch of our combined service and expanded global footprint,” Zaslav said in November. “With that, we are excited to announce that we have moved up our U.S. launch date from the summer of 2023 to spring. We’ve been very hard at work. We can make the service available to consumers around the globe and get the business running on all cylinders.”