“Very instructive for us”: HBO chief shares how The Pitt helped HBO create its own path in streaming original shows

HBO's The Pitt has been one of the top shows of 2025 on the streaming platform. Premiering in January 2025, the medical drama depicted a 15-hour gruelling shift of an emergency department of a fictional hospital in Pittsburgh. The 15 episodes of the series featured an hour of the shift and showcased how the employees of the Trauma Centre handled the tough and urgent medical cases.

According to Deadline, Casey Bloys, CEO of HBO and HBO Max Content, in a recent press presentation, talked about how the success of The Pitt might be helpful for the streaming platform to lean into the traditional TV habits, as the medical drama released new episodes weekly and consisted of 15 episodes instead of 10 or fewer like other shows on streaming services. He stated:

"Obviously The Pitt was very instructive for us, because I think as an industry, we’ve gotten away from television, which used to be 26 episodes when I started; the standard whittled down to 22 episodes. But you really have to set that up from the beginning to give yourself worlds that generate, in this case, 15 hours of story."

He further added:

"It’s why hospital shows were a staple, because a new story walks in the door, or several walk in the door every time. And cop shows."

More on this in our story.

HBO chief Casey Bloys talks about The Pitt's success and inspiring similar work on the streaming platform

HBO Max's The Pitt is executive produced by John Wells, Noah Wyle, and R. Scott Gemmill, who is also the creator of the show. The trio has previously worked on another renowned medical drama, ER. In the recent press presentation, Bloys talked about how The Pitt helped them bring more pilots, such as How To Survive Without Me (working title), a family drama series, and American Blue, a procedural show, that follow the traditional TV viewing habits.

He talked about how the creators of the Emmy-winning medical drama and the upcoming shows have experience in creating network television shows that helped them further in crafting compelling and intriguing stories. He stated:

"You have to set up, first, a world that generates the story, and you also have to work with people who know how to do that. It is a different skill generating 15 episodes of compelling stories, as opposed to crafting eight to 10, and over the last 10 to 15 years, not as many people have been trained in it."

Bloys also shared how the success of The Pitt will help in creating the traditional viewing habits for the audience, as the show will release a season in a year with episodes premiering weekly, and quipped:

"I think as an industry, we’ve gotten away from that, and my hope is for something like The Pitt, we aired it in January [2025], it’s coming back in January [2026]. That kind of habitual viewing, not only week to week, but on an annual basis, is really important in terms of setting habits."

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