After Friends briefly hits theaters next month, it will leave its streaming home at Netflix in 2020 and move to WarnerMedia’s HBO Max. The Office, meanwhile, is also leaving the challenged streaming juggernaut for NBC’s forthcoming follow-up to its shuttered Seeso platform. So, to put things plainly, a whole bunch of “classic” broadcast programs are about to be shuffled around amid some massive deals, and now it seems Chuck Lorre’s The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men are about to join the mix.
According to Deadline, WarnerMedia “had been looking to secure Warner Bros. TV’s latest comedy blockbuster” in a deal that many “expected to cross the $1 billion mark.” However, industry sources are now indicating that The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men, both of which Lorre co-created, executive produced and showran, are being packaged together in a deal that could “[fetch] as much as $1.5 billion.” The reported price is so high, Deadline notes, because of how limited the pair’s exposure to streaming has been so far. (That, and “stipulations” in Lorre’s deals for each show.)
Whatever ends up happening with these two shows and their potentially costing WarnerMedia a solid chunk of change, one thing is clear: Young Sheldon is the real loser here.
(Via Deadline)
