Hours after CEO David Zaslav announced Warner Bros. Discovery was spinning off its networks business, Chuck Lorre has tabled a bid.
The Big Bang Theory co-creator jokingly offered to buy the Global Networks business, which includes networks such as CNN, HGTV and the old Turner networks, for $2,700.
“Now that that Warner Bros is spinning off all those channels, Home and Garden and stuff, I can break the news here, I have assembled, in anticipation of this, a group of investors, and we’re prepared to buy all those channels, cash money for $2,700,” he joked. “I don’t want the $34B debt, but remodel my toilet, yes, absolutely.”
Joking aside, Lorre, who has been based at Warner Bros TV since 1999, has seen the studio go through different owners including AOL, Time Warner and AT&T, and now Discovery. He compared the experience to “growing up and your mom keeps going out with different men.”
“It’s confusing. It’s hard,” he joked. “The company has been really supportive of me. I would not have stayed all these years had they not been really supportive of me, and so has David. It’s been a good home for me to work all these years. I make fun of them, but that’s what I do.”
Lorre, who has also made series including Two and a Half Men, Mike & Molly, Mom, Young Sheldon, The Kominsky Method, Bob Hearts Abishola, Bookie and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, has produced around 1,500 episodes of television over three decades.
He made a gag about jokes not landing when taping sitcoms in front of live audience on the Warner Bros lot in Burbank. “When a joke dies, you can hear the 134 freeway,” he quipped before sharing a formula he has been using in his career, “Don’t settle, make it really good.”
Next up for Lorre is Leanne, a sitcom for Netflix inspired by the stand-up of Leanne Morgan. The show, which Lorre made with Susan McMartin, is out in July.
