And Just Like That… They Killed Peloton

And Just Like That…, the Sex and the City reboot, has had its fair share of criticism. From the show’s poor attempts to be more diverse to downright cringeworthy moments, it seems like the only people more disappointed than fans with season one is Peloton. 

In a shocking end to episode one, Big suffers a heart attack after completing his 1,000th ride on his Peloton bike. Following the five stages of grief model, viewers seemed especially stuck in a state of anger. There was a lot of speculation that Peloton had a product placement deal with the show; however, it was never confirmed (or denied!)

Peloton took matters into its own hands to control the narrative. They quickly released an ad through Ryan Reynolds’ agency with Chris Noth and the Peloton class instructor featured in the show to promote cycling and heart health. The messaging was clear: “and just like that he’s alive.”

Peloton forgot to remember that it is best not to disturb the dead. After the ad was released, sexual assault claims against Noth surfaced, causing Peloton to attempt to distance itself from more controversy.

Spoiler alert: Peloton couldn’t catch a break. In the season 6 premiere of Billions, a main character has a heart attack while riding a Peloton (sound familiar?)

Can it get any worse?

Yes, and it did. In mid-January, Peloton announced that it would be stopping production of its bikes, citing the changing trends in fitness as more people can return to the gym in a more traditional sense. Supply chain issues and inflation have not helped the poor earnings reports and falling stock price, more than an 80% drop from January 2021. In an effort to save the worst bike crash since the Tour de France incident of 2021, Peloton laid off 2,800 workers, and CEO John Foley is stepping down and transitioning into the executive chairman role. Don’t worry; employees that were affected received a 12-month Peloton subscription.