It turns out that the glorious days of having all the content you could ever want at your fingertips thanks to streaming platforms was just a pipe dream because if you don’t personally control the content, then you don’t control your access. That’s become even more abundantly clear over the last week as Paramount+ has joined its fellow streamers like Disney+ and Max in cutting entire series from its platform in order to write off underperforming shows for tax breaks. The Paramount+ content purge began, somewhat shockingly, with the well-received Star Trek: Prodigy (plus three other shows including Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies) and continued yesterday with multiple more shows, including Inside Amy Schumer and a slew of youth-focused items like the films Fantasy Football and Snow Day.
Obviously, the big removals came last week with Star Trek: Prodigy and Grease, as they were removed despite both having second seasons already in the works. (Prodigy season 2 will incidentally be finished and find a new home.) Prodigy‘s removal was especially huge given it was not only was a critical darling but also a Star Trek series, which is, for many, the only reason they are subscribed to the streamer. This second round of removals is much smaller in terms of big names, though the removal of the final season of Inside Amy Schumer is another high-profile move as Paramount was hoping for Emmy nominations from the series and the show used to be a big hit for it on cable.
Clearly, children’s programming is what is not doing well for Paramount. The rest of the content was either the aforementioned films or a slew of TV shows under Nickelodeon branding. They include All In with Cam Newton, Allegra’s Window, Becca’s Bunch, Bella and the Bulldogs, Crashletes, Digby Dragon, The Fresh Beat Band, The Halo Effect, Legendary Dudas, Monsters vs. Aliens, Mutt & Stuff, Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn, Peter Rabbit, Pig Goat Banana Cricket, Ride, and The Troop.
Just more of a reminder that owning your own copies of content is the only way to ensure you can always watch it. That is, of course, if Paramount deigned it worthwhile to release the series outside of streaming.
