When "Gordita Chronicles" debuted on HBO Max it was met with critical acclaim and by many accounts had a decent viewership. Why, then, was it canceled after just one season? More than that, why was it completely removed from the platform that introduced it to audiences in the first place?
The term "lost media" conjures images of forgotten internet videos buried beneath the ever increasing tide of "content." But in recent years that same term could, lamentably, be applied to major TV series on big
streaming platforms. Streaming services keep cancelling shows early for a variety of reasons, from the fact there's simply more media being pumped out, making it harder to compete, to the fact it's just easier to cancel shows when you're not beholden to a broadcast schedule. But there's also the unsettling trend of streamers actually removing shows altogether from their platforms, which has become a prominent issue ever since HBO Max started disappearing series without any notice. "Raised by Wolves," for instance, was unceremoniously removed from the service at the same time as "Gordita Chronicles" suffered the same fate.
Thankfully, you can still watch the latter over on Tubi today, which far from becoming a dumping ground for shows that got the axe too early, is fast becoming one of the best streaming services. But the trend of just completely erasing shows from the mediasphere remains just as troubling regardless — especially when those shows appeared to be doing quite well. For the team behind "Gordita Chronicles," the show's cancellation was surprising enough given its positive reception, but having it removed from HBO Max entirely was just plain upsetting. Why was it allowed to happen? Allow me to explain.
Read more: The 10 Worst HBO Shows Ever
Gordita Chronicles Was A Victim Of Changing Priorities At Warner Discovery
"Gordita Chronicles" was created Claudia Forestieri and based on her real-life experience. The series, which boasted Zoe Saldaña and Eva Longoria as producers (Longoria also directed the pilot episode) focused on reporter Cucu Castelli (Olivia Goncalves), the "gordita" (or "chubby girl") in question. Cucu narrated a recollection of her life growing up in 1980s Miami after she and her family moved to the city from the Dominican Republic. The series premiered on HBO Max on June 23, 2022, just two months after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger was completed, which is significant as it was this merger that arguably spelled the end for "Gordita Chronicles" before it had even debuted.
The show debuted to positive critical appraisals, and at one point had a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. What's more, Forestieri told Vulture that she'd heard ratings were strong. It was a surprise to say the least, then, when in July 2022, just one month after "Gordita Chronicles" debuted, Deadline reported that HBO Max had canceled the series due to the changing priorities at HBO Max owner Warner Bros. Discovery. At the time, a spokesperson for the company acknowledged the fact the series had earned "critical acclaim and a loyal following" and praised the "groundbreaking show" for "connect[ing] deeply with a very important demographic." Alas, it was to be axed alongside a raft of other series due to Warner Bros. Discovery cutting back on certain genres. As the spokesperson told the outlet, "Live-action kids and family programming will not be part of our programming focus in the immediate future, and as a result, we've had to make the very difficult decision to end 'Gordita Chronicles' at HBO Max."
Just to make matters worse, in December 2022, "Gordita Chronicles" disappeared entirely from HBO Max, alongside several other series. Essentially, the series was turned into a Warner Bros. Discovery tax write-off before the year ended, as part of CEO David Zaslav's merciless campaign to deal with the company's spiraling debt. But it wasn't just tax incentives that led to the demise of the show. A big part of streamers' willingness to delete entire shows from their servers is down to the way residuals work. If a show isn't reliably bringing in subscribers but the company still has to pay writers residuals, it's essentially losing money, which you have to imagine played into Warner's decision to remove "Gordita Chronicles" in December 2022. What's more, following the Warner Discovery merger, the company planned to consolidate HBO Max and Discovery's own Discovery+ platform into one streaming service, which eventually happened in 2023 (along with a name change to "MAX" that ultimately lasted only a little longer than "Gordita Chronicles" itself). Clearly, Claudia Forestieri's series didn't factor into that particular picture.
What Have The Cast And Crew Of Gordita Chronicles Said About The Show's Cancellation?
Following the cancellation of "Gordita Chronicles," HBO Max continued to remove shows, including 16 seasons of "Looney Tunes" shorts. Meanwhile, the people responsible for "Gordita Chronicles" didn't hold back in their assessment of what happened. In an interview with Vulture, creator Claudia Forestieri revealed that she and the crew heard through Sony, which produced the series, that it had been cancelled. "They just told us they were no longer going to do live-action kids and family programming," she said, before going on to explain why she was initially skeptical:
"I thought it was just a b.s. excuse, until two or three weeks later when all these other shows got canceled. Then it seemed like we were the canary in the coal mine. They decided not to release 'Batgirl.' And then I started thinking, 'Is it something against Dominicans?' Because ['Batgirl' star] Leslie Grace is Dominican. Maybe the new leadership at Warner Bros. Discovery just doesn't like Dominicans for whatever reason, I don't know!"
Soon after, however, Forestieri saw what she termed an "industrywide contraction in streaming" and acknowledged that she had "benefited from the streaming wars," by being a "first-time creator with limited TV-writing experience" who had been given her own show.
Meanwhile, executive producer Brigitte Muñoz-Liebowitz spoke to Rolling Stone, revealing that she and her production team were actually gearing up to start shooting season 2 when they heard about the cancellation. "It was a shock," she said, adding, "It felt very unjust. It didn't matter that our show was beloved, it didn't matter that we had good audience numbers. It didn't matter that we were writing about content that was important for underrepresented communities. None of that mattered."
In the age of streaming, TV preservation matters more than ever, but as evidenced by what happened to "Gordita Chronicles," that certainly doesn't appear to be the view taken by most executives. As Muñoz-Liebowitz told Rolling Stone, "We're in a weird sort of liminal space, a transition of technologies, where we don't have [DVDs] to fall back on. This is our history, and to make them unavailable is erasing that narrative."
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
