The Comeback and Enlightened were two cancellations that certainly surprised me because they went against what HBO has stood for. You have situations with Westworld, with Vinyl, with The Comeback, with Enlightened, in terms of the dynamic between executives and the creative talent. There was a period in the past decade, though, where they became much more hands-on and, dare I say, intrusive, according to some showrunners. One great thing HBO did was give creators and showrunners a lot more autonomy and a lot more freedom than the networks. Was there a project where the two seemed furthest apart?
You often expose tensions between talent and execs. It’s very frustrating for a network when they turn down a show and it becomes a huge hit. But I think all three of those could have been on HBO. Nobody can be in a position where they buy every hit, of course. They had the opportunity to read Matthew Weiner’s pilot, and I get into the whole story of what happened.
The Crown was an obvious one, but Mad Men kept coming up. Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Crown are the big three. What decisions did you get the sense were most regretted? HBO has made some controversial cancellations, like Deadwood and Rome, and passed on some shows that went on to be big hits like The Crown and Breaking Bad. As a result, there’s a real fighting spirit. Now in this post-Netflix era, they’ve gone back to feeling like they are the underdog and some of them relish that. The second thing is that, much like ESPN and all of these places, HBO started from humble roots where they were the underdog. There were some similarities - particularly with ESPN in the sense that there were a significant number of people who have been there for 20, 25, 30 years, so long that when you’re trying to do a book of record, they warmed up and were incredibly helpful across the administrations. 'We're Here' Renewed for Season 4 at HBO With New Drag Queen Hosts
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