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2 months ago
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All’s well that ends well. With most of HBO‘s existing Emmy juggernauts — The White Lotus, The Last of Us, House of the Dragon and Euphoria — not releasing new seasons during the 2024 Emmys‘ qualifying window and Succession and Barry gone, the network had been bracing for tough year-to-year comparisons.
Somehow, however, HBO | Max, No. 3 in the overall 2024 distributor rankings behind FX and Netflix, walked away with a top program Emmy on Sunday, scoring an upset win in the final category, Outstanding Comedy Series, for Hacks. It was the first time the Max original went head-to-head with FX’s heavy favorite The Bear after a long break between Seasons 2 and 3.
That won’t be the case with Season 4 of Hacks, which is already in production. In an interview with Deadline at the HBO | Max Emmy afterparty Sunday night, Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO and Max Content, spoke about Hacks‘ triple win — for Comedy Series, Lead Actress (Jean Smart) and Writing (creators/EPs Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky) — offered his thoughts on Curb Your Enthusiasm ending its run with 11 Comedy Series nominations and zero wins and shared his idea for settling the Comedy Or Drama category debate.
Bloys also provided status updates on the upcoming new seasons of The Last of Us, The White Lotus, Euphoria and True Detective and when we could expect the Harry Potter series. (Hint, it may be later than previously thought.) He also addressed the recent move of Harry Potter, The Penguin and Welcome To Derry from Max to HBO and the latter’s comedy bulk-up as well as fan reaction to Season 2 of House Of the Dragon.
DEADLINE: How did you head into tonight and were you surprised how the night ended for HBO | Max?
BLOYS: I headed into tonight knowing that our schedule had been impacted by the strikes and knowing that there were going to be some big winners that were not on our network. The big surprise, obviously, was Hacks at the beginning of the night. I couldn’t be happier for Jean and Paul and Lucia and Jen. If you read all the prognostications going in, everybody thought The Bear was gonna win, myself included, so it was a great surprising moment, and I was thrilled.
DEADLINE: Would you like to wade into the whole Is The Bear a comedy debate?
BLOYS: No. I’ve been on both sides of that; I’ve had shows that people say, is that a comedy? Is that a drama? I don’t worry that much about it, I think probably the more natural category is half-hour vs. hour, so I don’t get too hung up on that. But that being said, I was thrilled that Hacks was acknowledged for writing and Jean and the show; it doesn’t get better than that.
DEADLINE: The True Detective franchise just got its first acting Emmy win for Season 4’s Jodie Foster.
BLOYS: First acting win for the franchise, the fact that it’s Jodie, not a surprise, she was fantastic, so I’m thrilled for her. I’m thrilled for [showrunner] Issa [López], that she created this character. They had a wonderful time collaborating, if you hear them talk about each other, they’ll both say it was the highlight of their career to work together. So when that work gets recognized, also doesn’t get better than that.
DEADLINE: What can you say about Issa’s next installment of True Detective? Where is it in the process? Any chance for Jodie to come back?
BLOYS: Issa is busy writing. I don’t think there’s going to be anybody from Ennis in the new town. We’ll see, still writing.
DEADLINE: Can you share anything about the setting or the theme?
BLOYS: I will leave it to Issa when she’s ready.
DEADLINE: When can we expect it?
BLOYS: I don’t know yet.
DEADLINE: What about Curb Your Enthusiasm, which was shut out again, ending its 12-season run with zero wins out of record 11 Comedy Series Emmy nominations.
BLOYS: I talked to Larry. In terms of comedy, what Larry and the cast, Jeff [Schaffer] and Larry and the whole team have done; it’s pretty extraordinary to do 12 seasons. I’ve said before, Emmys aren’t everything, the work stands on its own, but I’d say, along the 12 seasons, maybe we missed as an industry acknowledging Curb.
DEADLINE: Looking ahead to next Emmy season, you already have House of the Dragon. What do you think about its Emmy chances with fans being divided over Season 2?
BLOYS: Well, I’m not sure that the fans were divided over Season 2.
DEADLINE: Maybe just George R.R. Martin.
BLOYS: Yes, maybe one fan was. But no, the show did really, really well. I expect that will be in competition. I have high hopes for Penguin and Colin [Farrell] and Cristin [Milioti]. We’ve got White Lotus coming back, we’ve got Last of Us coming back, we’ve got Emmy winner Hacks coming back. So I’m looking forward to next year.
DEADLINE: What can you say about premiere dates for the new seasons of White Lotus and The Last of Us?
BLOYS: Well, all I’ll say now, generally first half of the year, I expect them to be in the Emmy window.
DEADLINE: Any idea when Euphoria will be back?
BLOYS: I don’t know the exact date, but I will tell you that we’ve been working with [creator] Sam [Levinson]. I’ve been very pleased with the scripts that we’re getting. Our plan was to shoot starting in mid-January, and that’s still on track.
DEADLINE: Anything you can share about the upcoming seasons of The White Lotus and The Last of Us? You’ve seen footage, right?
BLOYS: I’ve seen Last of Us. I think everybody is going to love what [co-creator] Craig [Mazin] is doing. White Lotus I haven’t seen anything yet, but I went to visit. Obviously, I’ve seen dailies and read scripts, so high hopes for both of them.
DEADLINE: On Harry Potter, you recently started the search for little kids to play the three leads. What else is going on?
BLOYS: Writers have started. [Director] Mark Mylod has started. The team, they’re hiring department heads, casting, and we’re off.
DEADLINE: Are you looking to start production in March? That date was on the Casting Call.
BLOYS: We haven’t announced any [date]. I think they were talking about age [the young actors] will be in March, that doesn’t mean necessarily a production start date.
DEADLINE: Are you looking at 2026 to launch the series?
BLOYS: Late ’26-’27. Writers are just getting started so it’s too soon to talk about airdate.
DEADLINE: But you are excited about the take and the creative team that you picked?
BLOYS: Yes. With [writer] Francesca [Gardiner] and Mark I feel very, very happy and excited about what they’ve got going.
DEADLINE: Are there any other Max projects that could be moving to HBO or are we done with the great migration?
BLOYS: For now, I think we are done.
DEADLINE: Going forward, what is the main differentiating factor between an HBO and Max drama?
BLOYS: I think a good template for a Max drama would be what John Wells is doing with The Pitt which is, for lack of a better word, network drama, ongoing, close-end storytelling done at a price that is reasonable.
DEADLINE: What about the future of Max comedy?
BLOYS: [Head of Comedy] Amy [Gravitt] is probably leaning a little bit more into the HBO comedies at the moment, replenishing the comedy slate. We just picked up three comedy series, the Bill Lawrence/Steve Carell show, the Rachel Sennott and Tim Robinson shows, which is a lot for us, so we are excited. There is some really good stuff coming.
