UPDATED, Sept. 8: Roku has removed at least 37 original shows from the Roku Channel, as part of its announced effort to cut costs.
Those include episodes of the “Reno 911!” revival of the Comedy Central series; oddball sex-doll comedy “Dummy” starring Anna Kendrick; plane-crash drama “Survive” starring Sophie Turner and Corey Hawkins; and dystopian thriller “Most Dangerous Game,” starring Christopher Waltz; “Singled Out,” a reboot of the ’90s MTV dating show hosted by Keke Palmer; “The Andy Cohen Diaries,” an animated series chronicling the life of the Bravo TV producer and personality; a remake of “The Fugitive” starring Kiefer Sutherland; “Elba vs. Block,” a stunt-racing show in which Idris Elba and professional rally driver Ken Block competed head-to-head; and survival drama “Wireless” starring Tye Sheridan.
Also pulled from the Roku Channel were “Dishmantled,” a cooking competition hosted by Tituss Burgess; “The Newsreader”; “Panhandle”; “Slip”; “Moving the Needle With Dr. Woo”; “Surprise We’re Pregnant”; “Eye Candy”; “Murder House Flip”; “Let’s Roll With Tony Greenhand”; “Barkitecture”; “Big Rad Wolf”; “Murder Unboxed”; “Gayme Show”; “Iron Sharpens Iron”; “Squeaky Clean”; “Fierce Queens”; “Benedict Men”; “Memory Hole”; “Nice One!”; “Run This City”; “The Sauce”; “Ten Weeks”; “Poly”; “Mind/Trip”; “Gone Mental With Lior”; “Tempting Fortune”; “Cup of Joe,” a travel series following Joe Jonas; and Veena Sud’s psychological thriller “The Stranger.”
Nearly all of the shows removed by Roku were originally produced for now-defunct mobile streaming service Quibi, the assets of which were acquired by Roku in early 2021. Also no longer available on Roku Channel are the two seasons of “Children Ruin Everything,” the Canadian sitcom created by Kurt Smeaton (“Schitt’s Creek”) acquired by Roku for the U.S. market.
The removals are part of a series of cost-cutting measures by Roku, which includes laying off 10% of its staff. Roku estimates that it will take a $55 million-$65 million content-impairment charge related to “removing select existing licensed and produced content from company-operated services on its TV streaming platform.”
A source familiar with the company’s strategy said the shows being removed from the Roku Channel are titles that are not attracting new viewers. The removal of some of the titles from the Roku Channel was first reported by Deadline.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Roku originals “about Face” and “You Ain’t Got These” were removed. In fact, both series are currently available on the Roku Channel.
