It’s a good day for Casey Bloys, whose programming across HBO and HBO Max tallied up a whopping 142 Emmy nominations across 20 original programs on Tuesday morning, setting a record for the newly re-named platform.
But for the HBO boss, it’s the spread of recognition across both prestige series like “The White Lotus,” “The Last of Us” and “The Penguin” — with “The White Lotus” and “The Penguin” bringing in 24 nods a piece while “The Last of Us” scored 17 nominations — as well as the platform’s other offerings — including “Hacks,” which scored 15 nods for its fourth season, and newcomer “The Pitt,” which joined the pack with 13 nominations — that is the most rewarding.
“It’s always a nice recognition of all the creative people that we get to work with and the teams internally, but what was really nice is the nominations were spread across so many shows and so many genres — the dramas, comedies, late nights, documentaries. It was a great showing across the board,” Bloys told TheWrap on Tuesday morning.
Bloys said he’s especially proud of “The Pitt” for breaking through to Emmy voters in its freshman season, especially when compared to more prestige titles in the drama category, which includes “The White Lotus,” “The Last of Us,” “Severance,” “Andor,” “The Diplomat,” “Paradise” and “Slow Horses.”
“That is a format that is hard … when you say we’re going to set out to do 15 episodes, we’re going to do it with a contained budget,” Bloys said. “For any first-season show to break through is difficult, but for a show to break through along with shows that are made in a very different way — seven, eight episodes every 18 months … [while] Season 2 of ‘The Pitt’ is in production now and it’s airing in January … a little bit old fashioned television. — I think it’s great that a show that was made that way was able to break through.”
Bloys recognizes the value of balancing HBO’s slate with both shows on an annual cycle, like “The Pitt” and “Hacks,” as well as more prestige series that are on a two-year cycle, saying “I’m not looking to do any sort of show just one way or the other … There’s a lot of different approaches to making great television.”
Below, Bloys provides updates on “The White Lotus” Season 4, gives his two cents to Neil Druckmann stepping away from “The Last of Us” Season 3 and shares what else is coming up in the pipeline.
TheWrap: “The White Lotus” once again got its flowers. Do you have an update on Season 4?
Bloys: Mike [White] pitched a little — I know the general outline of what Season 4 is going to be. He’s going to be scouting, seeing what location he gets inspired by, and then giving us more of an update of what he’s thinking, but it’s percolating in his head.
“The Last of Us” also made a strong showing, and will have a shakeup next season as Neil Druckmann steps away. How do you expect the change will impact the next season?
I am not worried about it at all. We’ve been, obviously, very fortunate to have the person who created the game work on the show, and Neil is still an executive producer … but people do forget that he has a full time job as being one of the biggest video game creators, and runs a company called Naughty Dog, so he’s got a lot going on. I certainly understand that he has to spend more time doing that, but I think he and Craig [Mazin] have built up a really good blueprint. And obviously the game is a great guide for where to go.
What can you tease about “The Pitt” Season 2?
John [Wells] already said that it does take place over the July 4 holiday. Nothing good happens on July 4 — lots of firework disasters and all sorts of things. That’s all I can really say, but you don’t want to be in an emergency room on July 4.
Are you frustrated that “House of the Dragon” hasn’t seemed to catch on with Emmy voters the same way “Game of Thrones” did?
You know with the Emmys, you take what you get. It’s a nice recognition, but it’s not the reason why we do shows. Obviously, I would like to see everybody recognized, but it just doesn’t always work that way, so you just have to keep trying.
“Lanterns” comes out early next year and “Superman” looks to have successfully launched DC. What can you tease about that show? Is that an Emmy contender?
If there’s wood, I’m going to knock on it, because I’m superstitious, so I’ll just say I feel good about it. I’m not sure with the Emmy window where it falls, but in whatever window it falls in, I do believe it’ll be an Emmy contender.
You have several comedies in the pipeline. What are you excited about there?
Tim Robinson’s “The Chair Company” is great. Rachel Sennott has an amazing series for us. Those two are coming out this fall. Bill Lawrence and Steve Carell are working on a half hour for us that’ll clear 26. “The Comeback” is coming back, which we’re excited about. Sharon Horgan, who I think is terrific, has a half hour that she is creating and starring in. So we’ve got a lot of great stuff coming out.
Is Bill Hader’s Jonestown series close to an order?
I haven’t seen anything yet. They’re still hard at work on that, but I’ll be excited to get it when they’re ready.
We were happy to see more love for “Hacks” as well. What’s it been like nurturing that comedy? I know there’s potentially a five-season plan there.
They are a dream to work with — the creators, and also Jean [Smart] and Hannah [Einbinder]. They’re delights, I’m thrilled for the show to be recognized. In terms of … the seasons, we tend to leave that up to the creators, and they’ll tell us when they when they’ve told the story they want to tell. So they will let us know.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
