Warner Bros. Discovery Is Scrapping Scripted Programming Development For TNT & TBS

The television landscape is changing in a big way. Warner Bros. and Discover’s merger is shaking up a lot of things. If you’re a fan of TNT or TBS’s original programming then today is a sad day.

Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly cutting back on the scripted programming output of TNT and TBS. According to Variety, CEO David Zaslav has promised to trim $3 billion in cost savings for Warner Bros. Discovery in the post-merger era.

The WarnerMedia-run cable channel is no longer developing any new scripted content. According to a source, the company leadership is currently working on the strategy for “TNets, ” which includes truTV, led by Brett Weitz, and will have a better idea of the part each will have within the new authority moving forward.

TBS and TNT’s future is still unclear, and with their current slate of scripted programming, there was no response from Warner Bros. Discovery to the request for comment Tuesday.

After scaling up their scripted programming efforts in the last 10 years, both TNT and TBS have significantly cut down their scripted offerings in the last few years. There are still no new scripted shows, the network’s only shows are the comedies, “The Last OG,” “Miracle Workers,” “Chad,” and “American Dad.” The third season of, “Miracle Workers” was aired in July 2021, and the fourth season in November. Two new seasons of “American Dad” aired in December 2021, after switching from TBS to Fox in 2014.

There are two more scripted shows left on TNT’s roster, one is “Animal Kingdom” which will end after its final sixth season in June, and “Snowpiercer,” which got renewed for a fourth season. Obviously, fans of those shows will miss them if they are yanked due to the merger.

On Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery announced its first-quarter earnings, with Discovery taking up the majority of the reporting since the newly merged company didn’t exist until this month, just after the $43 billion deal was done for Discovery to buy WarnerMedia from AT&T.

Warner Media CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels revealed that the company asset profit projection for 2022 is $500 million lower than Discovery expected. He said, “2022 will undoubtedly be a messy year,” and Warner Bros. Discovery is looking to, “rectify some of the drivers behind the business-case deviations” across the company. According to Wiedenfels, the decision to shut down the newly launched CNN+ was “exhibit A” of that strategy, making it clear that TNOT and TBS’s scripting is part of that.

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