HBO Max Leaves Fans Fuming After Another Series Cancellation
HBO Max is cutting many of its unscripted shows, and, according to Deadline, fan-favorite ballroom competition series, Legendary, is its latest victim. The news that Legendary was axed after just three seasons comes only one day after another unscripted HBO show, FBoy Island, was canceled after two seasons. Legendary was one of the most inclusive shows on television and a beloved reality series, so, needless to say, fans are pretty upset about the purge.
After the news that HBO Max had ended the Legendary series, fans took to Twitter to express their disappointment.
Many fans called for other streaming platforms, besides HBO Max to pick up Legendary. They’re hoping that the series can find a new home and avoid meeting its end.
Others thought that the ending of the HBO Max series might have been intentional, suggesting that the streaming platform had more abominable intentions regarding Legendary than just budget cuts.
HBO Max’s Legendary featured voguing teams, called houses, that each contain five dancers and a house mother. Each episode documented a themed ball challenge in which the teams compete. Every week, the show helped the audience get to know the houses and the performers on a deeper level as they disclosed their inspirational backstories.
The show was hosted by dancer, actor, choreographer, and ballroom performer MC Dashaun Wesley. Leiomy Maldonado, Jameela Jamil, Law Roach, Megan Thee Stallion, and Keke Palmer sat as judges for the show. Legendary was one of the most inclusive shows in the unscripted genre of television and was praised by GLAAD. In a genre of television that so often lacks inclusion, HBO Max’s Legendary proudly featured black and brown queer talent.
The first season was released in 2020 and was quickly renewed for a second season that came out in 2021. HBO Max aired the third and final seasonof Legendary in May of 2022. The series was produced by Scout Productions, the same production company that produces Queer Eye. David Collins, Michael Williams, Rob Eric, Jane Y. Mun, Josh Greenberg, Renata Lombardo, and Shant Tutunjian executive produced the show.
As of now, the only judge who has commented publicly on HBO Max’s cancelation of Legendary is Leiomy Maldonado, who expressed how passionate she is about ballroom dancing and how disappointed she is in the cancelation of the series. In addition to being one of the judges for the show, Maldonado is a transgender Afro-Puerto Rican dancer, instructor, model, activist, and ballroom dancer. She founded the House of Amazon and is best known for her expressive voguing.
Earlier this summer, HBO Max decided not to produce any new unscripted television at this time, though they had announced that current shows like Legendary could possibly still be renewed. Unfortunately, HBO Max shows like Legendary and FBoy Island are two of the more expensive unscripted series to produce, and it seems the cost to run these shows is beyond what the company would like to spend.
HBO Max is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which is run by CEO David Zaslav. Zaslav has been facing criticism all year due to his seemingly excessive axing of fan-favorite shows, like Legendary, and movies, including the almost completed Batgirl earlier this year.
