HBO Max is forging its own path in the streaming original drama space by adopting the model of its Emmy-winning The Pitt, which involves 15+ episodes per season, a network-size budget and yearly release.
The platform recently identified the first two projects on track to join The Pitt, handing pilot orders to cop drama American Blue, from former Supernatural showrunner Jeremy Carver, and family drama How To Survive Without Me (working title), from top TV creator/producer Greg Berlanti, Bash Doran and Robbie Rogers. Both are produced by Warner Bros. Television which also is behind The Pitt that comes from the ER team of Noah Wyle, G. Scott Gemmill and John Wells.
Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO and HBO Max Content, spoke about the programming strategy he has been honing in on with HBO Max Head of Originals Sarah Aubrey at the HBO Nov. 20 press presentation.
“Obviously The Pitt was very instructive for us, because I think as an industry, we’ve gotten away from television, which used to be 26 episodes when I started; the standard whittled down to 22 episodes,” he said. “But you really have to set that up from the beginning to give yourself worlds that generate, in this case, 15 hours of story. It’s why hospital shows were a staple, because a new story walks in the door, or several walk in the door every time. And cop shows.
“You have to set up, first, a world that generates the story, and you also have to work with people who know how to do that,” Bloys continued. “It is a different skill generating 15 episodes of compelling stories, as opposed to crafting eight to 10, and over the last 10 to 15 years, not as many people have been trained in it.”
He noted that the auspices behind The Pitt and the two pilots, Wells, Gemmill, Berlanti and Carver, all have worked in broadcast TV, delivering 22 episodes a season for many years.
“We’ve been very, very intentional about the kinds of stories, the world we’re setting in it, and who we’re going to create with, Bloys said. “If more work, I think it’s a great compliment to have it to our HBO originals.”
Just like Aubrey in her interview with Deadline at the time of the pilot pickups, Bloys would not commit to a number of HBO dramas vs HBO Max dramas that his team plans to premiere a year and how the two would stack up alongside each other on the release calendar.
“I would never ahead of time say, we need to have this many of this and this many,” he said. “You have to start with, what’s a good show, what do we believe in? What is a good script? So it could be very possible that one year we have more HBO originals, one year we may have more [HBO Max series]. I think once you set a formula, you get into, well, maybe this isn’t great enough, but we need X number of shows, so I try to stay away from any sort of guidelines and let the creative guide. The great thing about development is you just give yourself as many options as possible in all of the formats.”
Bloys stressed the importance of keeping a yearly cadence in releasing new seasons, which is core to The Pitt model.
“That’s one of the reasons I was so thrilled that The Pitt worked and that it’s coming back; the annual return is really, really important,” he said. “I think as an industry, we’ve gotten away from that, and my hope is for something like The Pitt, we aired it in January [2025], it’s coming back in January [2026]. That kind of habitual viewing, not only week to week, but on an annual basis, is really important in terms of setting habits. I was thrilled not only that it worked, that it won the Emmy on top of that was just cherry on top.”
The Pitt‘s first season won five Emmys, including Outstanding Drama Series.
