Streamers such as Hulu, Disney+ and Max have made headlines for their decision to cancel shows and subsequently remove them from their services.
Hulu surprised users when it announced its plan to wipe shows — such as Alaska Daily and The Company You Keep — which were canceled after one season from its platform. The plan was originally announced in May 2023 as a corporate-wide strategy to cut streaming costs.
“As we grow the business in terms of the global footprint, we realized that we made a lot of content that is not necessarily driving sub growth,” Disney CEO Robert Iger said in a statement at the time. “We’re getting much more surgical about what it is we make.”
The decision came on the heels of the HBO Max merge, which combined WarnerMedia (owner of HBO Max) and Discovery (owner of Discovery+) to create a new company called Warner Bros. Discovery.
HBO Max, which has now been renamed to Max, quietly removed several original movies from the streaming service, including Lana Condor and Cole Sprouse‘s Moonshot and the 2020 remake of The Witches starring Anne Hathaway. The changes also continued to affect TV shows that were canceled amid the merger news.
Gordita Chronicles was one of the programs whose fate at HBO Max was short-lived. The comedy series, which debuted in June 2022, focused on Cucu Castelli as she reflected on her youth in the 1980s following her family’s move from the Dominican Republic to Florida.
The show starred Olivia Goncalves, Juan Javier Cardenas, Diana-Maria Riva, Savannah Nicole Ruiz, Noah Rico and Cosette Hauer. Gordita Chronicles was also executive produced by familiar names including Zoe Saldaña and Eva Longoria.
One year after the series came to an end — and was removed from Max — Longoria reflected on how Gordita Chronicles wasn’t given room to grow.
“I’m still unclear about why. We’re at the finish line,” the actress told The Hollywood Reporter in June 2023. “Are you kidding me? Do you know how much money was already put into developing, writing, producing, shooting, editing, marketing, this show?”
Longoria continued: “I do think with these mergers, it was just like a lot of suits making decisions and they’re not producers and they’re not in any of our guilds and they don’t understand how our industry works. When you just look at bottom-line numbers or when your only metric of success is the economic output, you’re missing the point. You’re missing the rest of the picture.”
Sign up for Us Weekly’s free, daily newsletter and never miss breaking news or exclusive stories about your favorite celebrities, TV shows and more!
Scroll down for a guide to every show removed from a streaming service after being canceled:
