Why when a TV show or a movie becomes a tax write-off, it can never be shown again?
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The other answers here are good, but let me take a step back and explain accounting a little.
On a balance sheet, you have three types of things – Assets, Liabilities and Equity. Assets are things the company owns, liabilities are money the company owes and equity is what is left that “belongs” to the shareholders. So if you own a car for $20,000 and owe $12,000 on the loan, you have a 20k asset, a 12k liability and 8k in equity.
Over time, most assets lose value. Without getting too complex, you are allowed to record this loss in value on your income statement as an expense for the period, which will make its way to a reduction in your equity. The loss on your income statement isn’t money that you actually spent, but rather just a representation of the loss of asset value. This can be deducted from your taxable income, so you pay less tax overall.
In this case, the claim is that by saying the show/movie will _never_ be shown again, they can claim that its value is much less than what it is listed for in the books – since it will never make them revenue again, its worth less than if it will potentially make revenue in the future. This allows them to reduce the value of that show asset, taking the loss for tax purposes.
This only really works if they agree to never show it again – if they do end up showing it and making revenue, then they wrote off too much and will have to reverse out the write-off on a future income statement.
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