On January 14, 2021, Scripps announced that it would discontinue Ion Shop and Qubo on February 28, with Ion Plus transitioning to a FAST service. The spectrum allocated to the three networks would be repurposed to carry Katz-owned networks starting March 1, with the initial slate of Ion Television O&Os adding those networks following the expiration of Scripps/Katz's existing contracts with other broadcasting companies the day prior, and other stations following suit as contracts with existing affiliates expired throughout 2021 and 2022; in markets where major network affiliates operated by Scripps already carried a Katz-owned network, the networks were load balanced and freed up onto Ion stations due to limited spectrum capacity during the ATSC 3.0 transition, along with Ion's existing carriage deals with Qurate's home shopping networks, QVC and HSN, along with their own secondary channels.
Following Qubo's closure, Scripps continued to utilize an unbranded outside-sourced three-hour block of programming on Ion Television in order to meet their E/I mandate on Friday mornings. Although programming that aired on Qubo's Ion block was retained, the Qubo branding was removed. The Qubo website redirected to the main Ion website shortly thereafter, then completely shut down.
Qubo's shutdown was unacknowledged on-air outside occasional ticker announcements and the withdrawal of promotional advertising that no longer applied. Some affiliates abruptly switched the night of February 26 to other Katz networks, while others were switched automatically when Qubo officially closed shortly before midnight on February 28, 2021.