Warner Bros. Regrettably Decided to Cancel Two Popular Decades-Old Shows

In a startling announcement on Friday, Variety reported that two beloved staples of daytime television – Judge Mathis and The People’s Court– would be concluding their long-running series. After 24 seasons for Mathis, and 26 seasons for The People’s Court, Warner Bros Unscripted Television decided to end the shows due to “the declining nature of the daytime syndication landscape.” Though this is just one more in a string of cancellations or scrapped projects by Warner Bros. over the past year, it has left fans devastated since these programs have been part of their daily lives for so many years.

Judge Mathis, which aired court cases presided over by Judge Greg Mathis, is the second-longest running arbitrator in history of televised court proceedings – only behind Judge Judy. The People’s Court also holds this prestigious title with a whopping 13,000 cases presented over its run; since 2001 they have been adjudicated under the watchful eye of Judge Marilyn Milian.

With so many changes happening at Warner Bros. Discovery, why are they cancelling a plethora of beloved shows and movies?

In August of last year, Warner Bros. Discovery began a pattern of cancellations that caused disruption in the entertainment world; they cancelled Batgirl and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt despite both being completed and set to debut on HBO Max. Throughout these months, numerous fan-favorite animated series have been removed from their streaming platform as well as existing HBO originals like Westworld and The Nevers receiving the same treatment. According to anonymous sources, no show is safe from cancellation or written off due to Warner Bros making decisions independently for each production case.

When discussing the merging of two companies, Kathleen Finch, Chairman and Chief Content Officer of Warner Bros. Discovery’s U.S Network Group commented in a keynote address earlier this year that “it was not so much for tax reasons [as] it was an evaluation as to what assets we had between both companies and how these assets fit into our ongoing strategy.” She went on to share that although tough decisions were made during this process, they needed to be done in order for them to move forward successfully together. As a content creator, I understand the pain of having your work taken away. We did not make these decisions lightly and have been doing our best to collaborate with creators in finding suitable homes for as much of their work as possible.

“I’ve had some long heart to hearts with people, explaining what happened, why it happened, all the decisions that went into it,” Finch added. “I totally get why people would be nervous. I hope they won’t be because that that was a moment in time, that had nothing to do with how we intend to run this company. It’s happening in the industry in other places. It’s not how we do business, it’s not a strategy. I’m happy to talk personally with anybody who wants to have a conversation about it, because it was really painful and not the way that we tend to move forward.”