HBO cancels Bomani Jones show after two seasons

In its continued upheaval of the HBO brand, Warner Bros. Discovery canceled "Game Theory with Bomani Jones" after two seasons.

While the short first season was buzzy on social media, the late night sports talk show garnered much more critical praise in Season 2. It was also the rare HBO show that would get billing on its basic cable sibling channels as the higher-ups decided to replay the show before TNT's NBA broadcasts at the start of the 2022-23 season.

However, even the additional views on TNT didn't entice viewers to watch the show on HBO. According to USTVDB, a ratings tracking website, no episode in Season 2 garnered more than 181K viewers, which was the peak in February of this year.

Truth be told, while Jones' critics may celebrate the news (such as the site that confirmed the news, Outkick), the cancelation of "Game Theory" is another mark on the decline of HBO Sports. For generations, the premium channel boasted Emmy-winning documentaries to go along with legendary boxing coverage. 

Although the influential "Real Sports" still churns out quality investigative reporting on the athletic world and "Hard Knocks" still has appeal with diehard NFL fans, HBO had begun to divest its efforts in sports long before its parent company WarnerMedia was merged with Discovery two years ago. There was no greater change to HBO Sports than the 2018 decision to end their iconic boxing telecasts after 45 years. 

Jones is far from the only famed sports media personality to have lost a show on the premium cable channel, and to his credit he may have been one of the few who was ever given more than a season to prove himself. 

Launched as a replacement of "Costas Now" when Bob Costas left to join MLB Network full-time in 2009, "Joe Buck Live" only had three episodes, with one of them becoming infamous because of boorish behavior by comedian Artie Lange. 

In his first post-ESPN television gig back in 2016, Bill Simmons got one full season of "Any Given Wednesday," but it was a show that got negative reviews from the very start.

Jones still has his deal with ESPN, but the network has undergone quite the upheaval this year with a number of well-publicized layoffs and expired contracts. What that means for the talented but divisive commentator remains to be seen at this time.