HBO picks up David Simon’s new series

Lost in all the excitement yesterday was the fact that David Simon’s new series Treme was picked up by HBO. A few sharp readers caught the story over at The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. The reports conflict as to how many episodes are to be produced and when the series will debut, but either way it appears that HBO liked what they saw from the pilot and picked it up quicker than expected. Initial reports were suggesting HBO wouldn’t make a decision until mid-June.

Winter Is Coming: That leaves Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones as the remaining two drama projects at HBO. Simon’s project was probably never in contention with either of these two as it is likely going to be cheaper and much smaller in scale.

I think what is interesting is how quickly HBO made their decision. Boardwalk Empire is scheduled to be done filming later this summer. Will they make their decision on Empire as quickly? Or will they wait to see how the Thrones pilot is shaping up before making their decision? I am starting to believe that HBO is quite willing to pick up all three of these projects, assuming the pilots are good. They did have The Wire, Deadwood, Rome, and The Sopranos all going at the same time, so they may be wanting to return to those days when they were the undisputed king of television dramas.

• Published on 05/07/2009 at 6:08 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/20/2016 at 4:56 PM CDT