A series of news stories in recent days have indicated that Warner Bros. Discovery is planning dramatic cuts to original content for HBO Max, possibly favoring discovery+ content over fare from the WarnerMedia side of this spring’s merger.
Now comes word that hundreds of hours of content from a major WarnerMedia brand will be landing not on HBO Max but on discovery+.
Warner Bros. Discovery announced on Thursday that a CNN Originals hub will launch on discovery+ on August 19. The hub will include several CNN original series, such as “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy,” ”Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown,” ”United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell,” and ”This is Life with Lisa Ling.”
Also coming to discovery+ are several HLN Original Series, such as “How It Really Happened,” ”Death Row Stories,” ”The Hunt with John Walsh” and ”Very Scary People.”
In all, the hub will feature 800 hours of content. Some series, the network said, will arrive on discovery+ after their CNN linear run. JB Perrette, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery streaming, said that the CNN Originals offerings are a fit with discovery+.
“True crime, food and travel programming are among the most-watched genres for discovery+ viewers,” he said, “so these titles from CNN will fit right in with our best-in-class collection of unscripted content.”
In addition, some CNN shows will stream on HBO Max, including “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?,” a news talk show that debuted during the brief life of CNN+, and will return this fall on CNN and HBO Max.
The announcement indicated what Warner Bros Discovery’s CNN streaming strategy, following the closure last spring of CNN+. The short-lived service, which shuttered earlier this year less than a month after it launched, will go down as one of the great debacles in streaming history.
The service failed to come anywhere projections for audience size and was also hurt by both the sale of parent company WarnerMedia to Discovery, and the abrupt departure of top executive Jeff Zucker, who had championed CNN+. In the months since, some of the on-air talent that was to be featured on the service, like Wallace and Kasie Hunt, has resurfaced on the CNN linear channel.
discovery+
discovery+ is a video streaming service that offers more than 70,000 episodes of 2,500+ current and classic shows from several popular TV brands including Discovery, Investigation Discovery, HGTV, TLC, Food Network, A&E, Lifetime, and History.