‘Hacks’ Post-Emmys Boost Highlights Max’s HBO Problem (2024)

Did an Emmy win for “Hacks” attract packs back to Max?

The answer: yes and no.

The Outstanding Comedy Series victory for “Hacks” over presumptive frontrunner “The Bear” did appear to bring an influx of new viewers to the Max series, per Luminate Streaming Viewership data.

U.S. viewing time for the dramedy’s first season increased more than tenfold in the week following the 2024 Emmys versus the week leading up to the ceremony, leaping from 3.4 million minutes streamed Sept. 9-15 to nearly 42 million Sept. 16-22. This made it the most-watched streaming original TV season on Max in this timeframe, excluding originals shared with linear HBO, such as “The Penguin” and “Industry.”

The caveat here: That’s still not much in terms of audience size. If we estimate viewership based on minutes streamed divided by the season’s total runtime, only about 136,000 people streamed “Hacks” Season 1 in the week following the Emmys.

Meanwhile, the first season of “The Bear” clawed its way back into the top 50 original streaming TV seasons in the U.S. in the week surrounding the Sept. 15 Emmys ceremony (ranked by minutes streamed), with about 230,000 estimated views — more than double the previous week.

This likely has less to do with the awards than with the Hulu series’ ongoing popularity — the third season has not dropped out of Luminate’s top 50 chart since its debut in June — though the spotlight provided by the Emmys probably didn’t hurt. (Despite its loss to “Hacks” in the top category, “The Bear” walked away with four wins, including three of the four Comedy Series acting statues.)

Indeed, “Hacks” illustrates a bitter reality for Max: sustained, robust engagement for its non-HBO originals is sparse.

Parent company Warner Bros. Discovery has thrown its weight behind HBO (despite stripping the brand from the name of its flagship SVOD), announcing in June that it would shift big-budget titles once designated as streaming originals — including “The Penguin” — to the cable network.

The company’s rationale for doing so, as explained by HBO and Max content CEO Casey Bloys at the time, was to help distinguish pricey “prestige” titles from the more mass-market series now in development at Max, one of which Bloys described as “a network show for a streamer.”

“That felt like a much more natural delineation of what we’re trying to do with Max versus HBO,” Bloys told Variety in June. “Typically, the production budget allows you to do more episodes. There’s closed-ended storytelling per episode, which is not typically what you would see in an HBO show.”

“Hacks” has certainly proven that a title doesn’t need the HBO branding to attract viewership and critical plaudits. The Emmy-winning third season was the most-watched non-HBO original on Max in the first half of 2024, according to Luminate data, with about 560 million minutes streamed.

Still, it’s hard not to wonder whether the series would have been a bigger hit had it been branded as an HBO original.

Here, again, comparison to “The Bear” is enlightening: The Hulu series is a streaming exclusive but is branded as an FX production due to its incubation at the Jon Landgraf-led cable network. It’s hard to say whether this branding alone makes a difference to the average consumer, but FX, much like HBO, is a trusted seal of quality among the tastemakers and critics who help viewers sift through the flood of TV content now available.

Meanwhile, HBO series that, frankly, were far less populist plays than “Hacks” — “Succession” and “The White Lotus,” for instance — have far outperformed the dramedy on streaming. A linear HBO run almost functions similarly to a theatrical release for a film at this point: a strategic rollout to help boost a title’s pedigree in the eyes of consumers.

Branding, in other words, still matters, arguably more than ever in a content landscape where everything is at everyone’s fingertips all at once. This is something Bloys clearly understands — his new “delineation” is possibly the smartest branding move made in the troubled history of HBO Max/Max — and his boss, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, evidently does not.

What does all this mean for “Hacks”? Nothing at the moment; the show’s awards attention and good-enough viewership has likely earned it the right to close out its run on its own terms. (It’s currently the only live-action, scripted HBO Max/Max original ever to be renewed for a fourth season.)

But the implications for the future of WBD, HBO and Max are much more profound. With the company’s corporate future as hazy as ever, and its stock price continuing to hover around record-low levels, perhaps shareholders should be asking company leadership tougher questions about its brand management strategy.

‘Hacks’ Post-Emmys Boost Highlights Max’s HBO Problem (2024)
Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Msgr. Refugio Daniel

Last Updated:

Views: 6344

Rating: 4.3 / 5 (54 voted)

Reviews: 85% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Msgr. Refugio Daniel

Birthday: 1999-09-15

Address: 8416 Beatty Center, Derekfort, VA 72092-0500

Phone: +6838967160603

Job: Mining Executive

Hobby: Woodworking, Knitting, Fishing, Coffee roasting, Kayaking, Horseback riding, Kite flying

Introduction: My name is Msgr. Refugio Daniel, I am a fine, precious, encouraging, calm, glamorous, vivacious, friendly person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.