Amazon Halts 'Citadel' Franchise, Silently Admitting Failure

A few weeks ago, as we were busy gasping over Amazon Studios having to pay twice for the Bond franchise, it was noted how much Barabra Broccoli hated Amazon from the jump. She hated their ethos, their marketing plans, and perhaps most of all, their franchising of "IP" (Intellectual Property) into every medium possible. Multiple reports included a story about the head of Amazon's TV division, Jen Salke, sitting down with Broccoli to talk about "content" possibilities, only for Broccoli to come away profoundly offended that Bond was nothing more to the company than "content."

Up until last week, Salke was one of the few TV producers in the streaming space who hadn't been summarily fired for the service underperforming during the pandemic years; even though Wheel of Time failed to break out, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was made a laughingstock due to it numbers-free announcements of "record audiences," and Citadel, the new "flagship Amazon series" somehow did far worse in viewership than either of the aforementioned struggling series. What happened to Good Omens was not her fault; it was just a shame that the show was one of Prime Video's first cult favorites; however, her inability to integrate MGM's library into the Amazon fold went far beyond Broccoli issues.

But post-Double Bond payout, she suddenly discovered a somehow-never-before-mentioned desire to produce and abruptly left literally days before she was supposed to speak CinemaCon. So what does this mean for Amazon's Prime Video and MGM+? Is there no way out but up at this point?