There was a time, not all that way back when the identify HBO was synonymous with top-tier tv.
A few of our readers may keep in mind the enduring slogan from the cable large’s heyday that summed up its distinctive strategy to programming:
“It’s not; it’s HBO,” we had been informed. And as laughably pompous as which will sound on reflection, on the time, it rang surprisingly true.
If one had been to compose a complete historical past of the previous 25 years in American tv, it could be troublesome to not point out HBO on each different web page.
When Intercourse and the Metropolis turned an in a single day cultural phenomenon in the summertime of 1998, business analysts doubtless regarded it as a fluke — a one-off occasion wherein a premium cable channel greatest often known as a secondary marketplace for theatrical films stumbled onto success with an unique sequence.
Nevertheless, what HBO executives achieved within the years that adopted couldn’t be dismissed as simply.
The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Wire, Deadwood, and Six Toes Beneath all established the House Field Workplace community because the business chief in what would later be described as “status TV.”
That success continued within the 2010s with reveals like Boardwalk Empire, Veep, Silicon Valley, and Succession scoring, successful huge with each critics and audiences.
In fact, in 2011, a real underdog sequence — an adaptation of a really area of interest (and unfinished) sequence of fantasy novels — shocked the business and introduced HBO its highest scores to this point.
Forward of its premiere, few predicted that Sport of Thrones would turn into the most important present of its decade.
(The horrendous wigs and different proof of a shoestring price range in that considerably uneven pilot function reminders of how reluctant the community was to gamble on a pair of unproven showrunners.)
On the time, it appeared as if GoT could be the beginning of HBO’s new period of unprecedented success.
However everyone knows what occurred subsequent.
The present fizzled out in its last seasons, concluding with what many have known as essentially the most disappointing sequence finale in TV historical past.
And that was the start of what is perhaps known as the Curse of Sport of Thrones.
The present wrapped up in 2019, and it now appears as if premium cable may by no means see such sizable audiences once more.
An inventory of the unique HBO reveals that premiered within the 2020s incorporates numerous high quality sequence however not a lot in the best way of large hits.
Lovecraft Nation, Perry Mason, and Profitable Time all acquired strong evaluations — however none of them lasted for greater than two seasons.
Evaluate that to 10 years in the past when each Sunday evening of the 12 months provided at the very least one buzzed-about HBO present.
The Penguin, The White Lotus, Business, Anyone Someplace, and The Gilded Age are all good to implausible sequence.
(Anyone Someplace, specifically, is criminally underrated.)
However none of them has delivered large scores.
Sure, HBO has fallen up to now that even a present from the DC universe that’s spun off from a massively profitable Batman film ceaselessly fails to crack the two-million viewers mark.
Evaluate that to the GoT sequence finale, which was watched by a staggering 19.3 million viewers.
There have been brilliant spots in recent times, most notably The Final of Us, which scored 4.7 million viewers for its season premiere in January of 2023.
Clearly, that’s a far cry from the numbers that GoT was boasting, however TLoU’s viewers grew because the season progressed.
In actual fact, it practically doubled. 8.2 million watched the sequence finale.
The online game adaptation delivered HBO’s second-strongest premiere of the last decade, second solely to Home of the Dragon.
Sadly, numbers for that sequence declined in its second season. Execs are actually hopeful that The Final of Us can reverse that development when its second season premieres subsequent 12 months.
HBO’s decline is probably greatest encapsulated by the primary and to date solely Sport of Thrones spinoff, Home of the Dragon.
The present debuted strongly with 10 million viewers. However the Dragon would by no means soar to these heights once more.
In actual fact, the sequence’ second season premiere noticed viewership decline by a whopping 22 %.
There have been many components at play right here:
Streaming choices are splintering TV audiences increasingly with every passing 12 months, and final 12 months’s author and actor’s strikes compelled HoD to take a mega-long hiatus that doubtless led to a decline in viewer curiosity.
However those self same components have affected each platform, and broadcast networks take pleasure in roughly the identical measurement viewers as they did 10 years in the past, as do main primary cable channels.
So what’s the deal? Properly, a lot ink has been spilled with reference to the place precisely HBO went incorrect.
Most fingers are pointed squarely at Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav, whose advertising and marketing missteps embrace the disastrous resolution to rebrand HBO’s streaming app as merely “Max.”
However in a collapse of this scale, there’s nearly definitely a couple of issue guilty. And the bigwigs at HBO are doubtless hoping to appropriate their course by taking drastic motion in 2025.
Presently, at the very least two extra Sport of Thrones spinoffs are in growth.
However Zaslav and firm is perhaps beginning to really feel that the dragon development has burned itself out. And the subsequent Sport of Thrones-sized hit in all probability gained’t be present in Westeros.
What do you suppose, TV fanatics? Can HBO ever hope to regain its former glory?
Hit the feedback part under to share your ideas!
Watch Home of the Dragon On-line
