LOS ANGELES – Imagine a baseball team shedding superstars. Ruth, Gehrig, and Mantle all retire ... just as the manager is told to play more games with more people.
That's HBO now. Gone are Game of Thrones (with 32 Emmy nominations, a dozen more than any other show), Veep, and Big Little Lies. The pilot has been shot for a Thrones prequel, programming chief Casey Bloys told the Television Critics Association (TCA), but there have been no plans for a third Lies season.
This comes just after HBO got corporate instructions to have more shows on more nights. "The big challenge ... was to make sure we weren't just filling hours to fill hours," Bloys said.
So far, that seems to be working. After averaging just over 100 hours of original shows in most seasons, HBO will finish this year with 150; next year, it may have 160.
That means:
More nights, for a network that used to be happy with just super Sundays. "Chernobyl and Gentleman Jack were the first two shows we had on Monday nights," Bloys said. Both scored – especially Chernobyl with 19 Emmy nominations.
And more from alternative genres are planned, beyond the usual dramas. Documentary series, especially true-crime ones, are increasing.
The network is also returning to sketch comedy.
A Black Lady Sketch Show debuts Aug. 2, with lots of quick, filmed bits and one recurring one – about the world's only four survivors. "Black women are very resilient," said Robin Thede, who created the show and stars with Issa Rae (left, with Thede) and others. "Who better to survive an apocalypse than four black women in a gorgeous house?"
That was one of five shows HBO introduced to the TCA. Others are:
Our Boys, a miniseries is starting Aug. 12. The story of a 2014 crisis that led to war in Gaza is told from three perspectives – a Jewish family, an Arab family, and investigators.
The Righteous Gemstones, a comedy that starts Aug. 18, is created by and co-starring Danny McBride. His previous HBO comedies were raw tales of an angry minor-league pitcher and bitter high school principals. Now, he's going big – with John Goodman as the head of a mega-church.
Finally, HBO has two adaptations starting this fall: Watchmen uses the superhero alternate-reality from the graphic novels as the jumping-off point but moves ahead a generation, and His Dark Materials is a fantasy adventure series with Dafne Keen, 14, as Lyra, searching for a friend in another world. It also stars James McAvoy and Lin-Manuel Miranda – both of whom say the three Philip Pullman novels are among their favorite books.