Spotify Cancels At Least 6 Live Audio Shows in Latest Programming Cuts

Spotify has canceled at least six of its live audio shows as part of the audio giant’s latest round of programming cuts.

Included in the cancelations are Deux Me After Dark, a celebrity gossip show hosted by the anonymous creator known as Deux Moi; Doughboys: Snack Pack, a food show hosted by the comedians Nick Wiger and Mike Mitchell; The Movie Buff, a movie review show hosted by the comedian Jon Gabrus, A Gay in the Life, a current events and LGBTQ+ culture show from Teen Beach Movie star Garrett Clayton and writer Blake Knight; Taylor Talk, a Taylor Swift fan show hosted by Ellie Schnitt; and Lorem Life, a music show based on Spotify’s Lorem playlist hosted by Dev Lemons and Max Motley.

The cancelations, two of which were not previously reported, were confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by a Spotify spokesperson.

At least two deals for the Spotify Live shows were canceled midway through the creators’ contracts, according to a person familiar with the matter. A second source close to the matter said that all the contracts are being paid out in full, despite the cancelations.

The audio giant, which rebranded its live audio offering in April from Spotify Greenroom to Spotify Live, will continue to release live episodes from The Ringer MMA Show and The Fantasy Footballers, the latter of which struck a deal with Spotify earlier this year that included an extension of the show’s partnership with Spotify Live through the next three NFL seasons.

Other creators like Alex Cooper, whose Spotify Live show was promoted as part of the company’s live audio rebrand, have not continued hosting live episodes since launching their shows earlier this year. Cooper’s second and most recent live episode took place in April and was made available for on-demand listening on April 28.

The programming changes, first reported by Bloomberg, are the latest cuts from the audio giant, which recently canceled a total of 11 shows from in-house studios Gimlet and Parcast — 10 of which came to an end last month. The cuts have followed a similar model to cancelations in TV programming for broadcasters and streamers.