TBS Comedy Series ‘Kill The Orange-Faced Bear’ Axed As Warner Bros. Discovery Leadership Examines Slate

EXCLUSIVE: Kill the Orange-Faced Bear starring Damon Wayans Jr. will not be going forward at TBS. The cast and crew were just told about the decision, which comes a week before the comedy series was scheduled to begin production on its 10-episode order in Vancouver. I hear the project, which has a filmed pilot, will be shopped to other outlets by the producers.

This marks the first major decision to kill a WarnerMedia entertainment project following the completion of Discovery’s acquisition. It follows the new leadership’s recent move to swiftly pull the plug on CNN+ after just weeks of operation. Warner Bros. Discovery has pledged to deliver $3 billion in cost savings from the deal, and the demise of Kill the Orange-Faced Bear is believed to be a business, not a creative decision. Further culling of WarnerMedia divisions’ slates is expected as the new top executives examine the newly acquired assets, with TNT and TBS pulling away from new scripted development.

The modestly budgeted Kill the Orange-Faced Bear, which was picked up to series in November, is about one man’s (Wayans Jr.) epic revenge journey after a bear eats his girlfriend.

The comedy fit into TBS’ brand lane, always here for a good time, developed by Brett Weitz, General Manager, TNT, TBS, and truTV, alongside TNT’s always here for a thrill ride and TruTV’s always here for a good laugh. While sports’ and unscripted fare’s presence on TNT and TBS has steadily increased, the linear networks had remained committed to original scripted programming under Weitz, a well liked veteran programming executive. That will likely not be the case under the new Warner Bros. Discovery leadership, with the TNets put under the oversight of veteran unscripted programming exec, Discovery’s Kathleen Finch. (I’d heard that could potentially change depending who is brought in as Chair and CEO for Warner Bros. Discovery Sports.)

Linear ad-supported cable networks is the area where there is the most overlap between WarnerMedia and Discovery; it has been viewed as a prime target for post-merger cost-cutting and staff reduction as the two cable groups consolidate operations such as sales and BA.

In Kill the Orange-Faced Bear, Wayans Jr. stars as Hank, the charming, funny and grieving man who’s hell-bent on tracking down Brenda the bear, along with Jessy Hodges as Jamie, the twin sister of Hank’s late girlfriend; Alex Karpovsky as Ronnie, an oddball park ranger; and Nate Torrence as Murray, Hank’s best friend. The voice cast lineup includes Sarah Silverman as Brenda, the sarcastic badass grizzly bear who attacked and ate Hank’s girlfriend; Nicole Byer as Pauline, a bear with perfect fur and perfect nails who uses her feminine wiles to seduce Brenda’s husband; and Sam Richardson as Steve, the charmingly idiotic bear with a dangerous habit of breaking into cars to steal snacks and beer.

The series is written, and executive produced by Romanski (fka Chris Romanski). Trevor Engelson and Steven Fisher of Underground, Alex Karpovsky, Jake Szymanski, and Wayans Jr. also serve as executive producers. Jake Szymanski directed the pilot.

Kill the Orange-Faced Bear was a passion project for Weitz who had originally tried to buy the pitch about five years ago. It ended up going to Comedy Central. When that network ultimately passed on it, the producers brought it back to TBS, which ordered a pilot after making a couple of changes.

“I’m a big fan, and Sam Linsky and Adrienne O’Riain, who run all of our scripted content, were big on what’s not on television and what’s going to make noise and land with the consumer, but also what’s going to be threaded with joy, and what’s going to make people laugh, and the absurdity of Kill an Orange-Faced Bear is so beautifully constructed,” Weitz told Deadline in November.