Paramount+ is not feeling hopelessly devoted to Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies. Serving as a prequel to the 1978 hit musical film Grease, Pink Ladies premiered on April 6, with 10 episodes available for streaming on Paramount+. However, after just one season, the show has been canceled – and the streaming service is going to remove those less-than-a-dozen episodes, too.
Pink Ladies isn’t the only program getting axed completely from Paramount+. It’s also removing Star Trek: Prodigy, The Game, and Queen of the Universe. Paramount+ is the latest streaming platform to take this approach for tax write-offs, which drove Warner Bros. to completely drop its near-complete Batgirl film.
Paramount+ completely drops ‘Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies’ from its future and its platform
“The Paramount+ series Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, Star Trek: Prodigy, Queen of the Universe and The Game have completed their runs on Paramount+ and will not be returning to the service,” said a Paramount+ spokesperson in a statement. “We want to extend our thanks to our tremendously talented cast and crew and our producing partners for their passionate work and dedication on these programs, and we wish them all the best on their future endeavors.”
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Star Trek: Prodigy was originally supposed to have a second season, only for Paramount+ to reverse the decision; meanwhile, both The Game and Queen of the Universe are ending after just two seasons. News of their conclusion – and departure – comes as Paramount+ announces plans to incorporate Showtime titles in its library on Tuesday.
The biggest shows to be removed were announced on Friday and are due to start disappearing from the platform this week.
What’s going on with the case of the disappearing shows?
If you have shows or even film titles you were excited about, only to find them pulling a remarkable disappearing act, there’s a reason for that. An increasing number of big companies are not just canceling shows but removing them entirely from their streaming platforms. Fans of Brendan Frasier were heartbroken to learn they would never see that phase of his comeback as a DC villain in Batgirl. Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery remove titles they consider underperforming to then use them as tax write-offs.
The Hollywood Reporter writes that Pink Ladies had actually been intended for HBO Max, only for Warner Bros. Discovery to drop it. Streamers that keep any title on their platform have to pay licensing fees the whole while.
Going back to Warner Bros Discovery as an example again, the platform dropped its lower-performing shows, including Westworld and The Nevers, but it went on to license them to free, ad-supported streaming services as a way to potentially make up their losses. It’s unclear if Disney, which recently removed some dozen titles from its Disney+ and Hulu libraries, will also sell these titles to ad-supported services. THR does write that Paramount+ is looking to do business with Pink Ladies elsewhere.
Have any of your favorite shows disappeared from where you used to watch them?