HBO has announced that the award-winning news program, Vice News Tonight, will officially be cancelled after a seven year partnership with the production company. The implementation also further severs ties with Vice Media, as a result of internal restructuring within the media organization.
One important change being, the recent disclosure from The Walt Disney Co. that their $353 million stake in Vice Media had been ‘written down’ — an accounting term that means the reduction of an asset will be offset as a loss or expense. The company also cancelled Vice Live last April after a low viewership rating during its debut; a subsequent layoff also reduced 10% of its staff.
“We’ve decided not to renew Vice News Tonight after this season,” an HBO spokesperson mentioned in a statement. “We’ve had a terrific seven years partnering with VICE Media, first with the weekly news magazine series and most recently with the nightly news show.”
Intended to be HBO’s version of late night television, the news program was originally created in 2016 to provide Millennials context for everyday news worthy stories. Since its inception, Vice News Tonight has won four Emmys for its news coverage, amongst other awards.
A&E president and Vice Media CEO, Nancy Dubuc mentioned the decision was due to “leadership and content strategy changes over at HBO.” An obvious nod to HBO’s longtime standing CEO, Richard Plelper, stepping down after AT&T’s merger with Time Warner aka WarnerMedia.
“It’s been a great seven-year partnership that began with Shane’s vision and ability to make transformative deals, allowing us to be the most Emmy-awarded and youngest nightly news broadcast available today,” Dubuc wrote in an internal email. Dubuc also added that Vice News was considered a “pillar” of the production company, and one of “growing significance and power” to the overall brand.
“A daily VICE News show will continue and I’ll be able to share with you all the details in the coming weeks,” Dubuc added on the heels of her announcement, that former The New York Post CEO will join the company as president of global news and entertainment.
“Jesse is joining us to create expanded platform opportunities and franchises for all our great talent and the content we are making every day,” Dubuc continued. “Importantly, his role will really bring to life our ambitions to expand our VICE News global footprint.”