It was quite a fine morning for Casey Bloys, the HBO and Max content chairman/CEO who saw his combined platform pull off 142 Emmy nominations — a new best for the company. Bloys said he had been prepped by his head of awards, Austin O’Malia, for several different outcomes, “and he was feeling good. So if he feels good, I feel good.”
And that bore itself out with 24 nominations for “The Penguin” (the most of any limited/anthology series this year), 23 nods for “The White Lotus,” 16 for “The Last of Us,” 14 for “Hacks” and 13 for “The Pitt.”
“When I think about the team at HBO and all the creatives that choose to work with us, I’m thrilled with the recognition that they get,” Bloys said. “But I’m also really happy for the team internally. When you think about Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller in documentaries, Nina Rosenstein in late night and talk, Amy Gravitt in comedy, Francesca Orsi in drama, Sarah Aubrey with Max originals like “The Pitt.” Across the board, they all put up multiple nominations. It really is a group effort, and it’s nice to see the team’s work recognized.”
Variety spoke with Bloys on Tuesday morning about the Emmy haul, and what comes next for some of those shows.
One of your biggest hits of the morning was ‘The Penguin,’ and we’re all still wondering what the future holds. We hear that a Season 2 could be in the works, what can you say today about that?
The number one thing right now that Matt [Reeves] is dealing with is getting the movie going. I believe they’re making progress there. I know that he and [showrunner] Lauren [LeFranc] have talked about various ideas. So, could another chapter be in the future? Definitely possible. Right now, I think the priority for Matt is the movie. But I know that Lauren is thinking of various ideas that might work alongside the movie. I think it’s possible. I just don’t know at this point.
It sounds like Colin Farrell is on board.
Yes, he’s the one that has to play that dark character and sit and sit in the makeup chair for several hours a day. So his buy-in is essential.
Is there an ETA on when you might be able to announce something?
No ETA is or anything like that.
We know right now planning on Season 3 of ‘The White Lotus’ has to be on hold because creator Mike White is off in Fiji competing on ‘Survivor.’
The great thing about Mike, one of the things I know about him, is whatever is going on in Fiji and ‘Survivor,’ I know that he’s thinking about ‘The White Lotus.’ Maybe he’s even observing his fellow contestants and taking notes and getting ideas. So I’m not worried about any sort of delay. Mike always has the show in his head worked out, so I’m excited to talk to him when he’s back about what he’s what he’s thinking.
Do you have a sense of what he’s thinking yet? How much have you talked to him about where to place the new season and the timing?
I have a sense of the ideas that he’s playing with, but the scouting process is really important for him. They’re going to be doing that soon. I don’t know where it’s going to end up. I know it has been reported, Europe in general. But so much could change. It really does depend on when he sees a location, what he thinks about it and how it works with the story he’s trying to tell. So I just don’t know until he actually goes and tours a lot of places, and what excites him and what speaks to him. He will go through that process and we’ll take his lead.
I think the only thing we know for sure is it’s not going to be a cold place, because he’s pretty adamant that he hates the cold.
Yes.
The big news for ‘The Last of Us’ was Neil Druckmann stepping away. Can you talk a little bit about that? From HBO’s perspective, what that meant for you, and talking to Craig Mazin about where things go now in Season 3.
Obviously it was great to have Neil involved in the beginning. The whole reason that I wanted to do ‘Last of Us’ is after ‘Chernobyl,’ I said to Craig, ‘what do you want to do next?’ And ‘Last of Us’ was what he wanted to do. That’s what was most important to me, Craig’s creative excitement about the show. It was fantastic to have Neil involved. A lot of people don’t realize that Neil has a full time job creating video games and running Naughty Dog. It’s a really big job that he’s got. So I understand why he needs to focus on that. But I believe he’s given us a good blueprint with the show. And obviously Craig is a pro, so I think we’ll be in excellent shape. I’m not worried at all.
Can Season 3 make the 2026-2027 TV season, what’s the timeline? And if it follows the game, will that be the final season?
The series is definitely planned for 2027. Craig is still working it out whether it will be two more seasons or one more long season. It hasn’t been decided yet, and I’m following Craig’s lead on that.
Obviously, since the show follows the game, the characters change. Already with Pedro out, and it’s sort of a question mark how much Bella will be seen in the new season. Is that a challenge?
Not from a marketing perspective, because I think the title is obviously helped by the video game, and now the first two seasons is pretty well established. I kind of appreciate shows that take things and do a show from a different point of view.
Speaking of shows with different points of view, Nathan Fielder and ‘The Rehearsal,’ that’s a show that I bet even surprised you with how much attention it got, especially toward the end.
To be honest, it was not a surprise to me. Obviously, it’s the second we’ve done with him. He is a really, really special talent. I can sometimes tell, and it’s completely anecdotal, but the unsolicited emails or texts I get about how much people love a show, and I was getting a lot of ‘Rehearsal’ love. That season was pretty incredible, and also was highlighting a real problem. I just thought it was brilliant, the way he approached it.
Would you fly in a plane that Nathan Fielder piloted?
To be honest, while I was watching it and seeing the actors sign on for it, I don’t know that I would do that. I’m more cautious.
Any word on a Season 3?
He and Amy are talking about various ideas. He’s someone where you kind of have to let him come to you with the idea that gets him excited. Obviously, I want to know what he’s thinking and would be excited, but I’m letting him go through his process. I know he’s got a couple of germs an idea.
Talk about ‘The Pitt’ roll out and how a lot of things really came together with that show, leading to all these nominations this morning.
I couldn’t be happier for John [Wells] and Scott [Gemmill] and Noah [Wyle], the entire cast, because from the beginning, it was a little bit going back to the basics of television.We had the best in the business in terms of writers and actors and directors. John and his team know how to do this and that expertise. It’s hard to break through the Emmys with any show, especially a first season show. But especially a show that is up against series that do seven or eight episodes every two years, it it makes it harder to compete when you are doing 15 episodes. That’s not even close to what network television used to do, but still impressive. And Season 2 for ‘The Pitt’ is already in production. Working in those sorts of circumstances, it can be harder when you’re competing with shows that have more time, more resources. So it’s all the more impressive that the show broke through. I think a lot of people appreciated that you can still make a high quality show that comes back annually and has a good number of episodes. So it’s a real success story on a number of levels.
Having 15 episodes helped, the week-to-week rollout seemed to make an impact as it slowly gained an awareness. The hallmarks of classic linear television, but on a streamer.
So television works!
There’s been so much speculation about the news that Tracy Ifeachor is departing. What can you tell me from the HBO Max perspective?
This is a big show with a lot of cast. I wouldn’t read too much into it, other than it’s a show about one shift to the hospital, hour by hour. So there are going to be lots of people coming and going. This new season has new doctors in for this shift. So it’s part of the part of what’s exciting about the format is things can change quickly.
Speaking of traditional TV models, this is the kind of show that, in success, begets spin offs. Have you been talking to John at all about doing one?
No, no, no, no. Have not gotten there yet. I think getting the show right and getting it out will be the priority for now. We have not had any conversations about any other spin offs.
I’m gonna give you a million dollar idea. “Fire Pitt.” Just down the street from the hospital is a Pittsburgh fire station.
I’ll take it under advisement.
What’s coming up that you’re excited about?
A lot to talk about. ‘The Chair Company’ with Tim Robinson is coming up. Rachel Sennott’s comedy is coming up. Bill Lawrence and Steve Carell have a new show for us. We’ve got ‘Task’ coming up in the fall, and the new ‘It’ prequel series is coming. We got a lot of stuff lined up. So I’m excited.
Anything more to add about what this record tally means to HBO?
It’s a nice validation. Getting the most nominations isn’t the reason we do this, but it does feel good when it happens.
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