>
HBO, to no one’s surprise, has renewed both its new half-hours,
VEEP and
GIRLS, for 2d seasons (10 episodes each). Neither show is a ratings blockbuster (numbers aren’t available yet for last night, but the previous week
Veep had an 0.6 rating and
Girls had a 0.4), but as is often the case with HBO, that’s a secondary consideration. Both
Veep and
Girls are being talked about, and both will at least be in the Emmy Award conversation (you can probably pencil in Julia Louis-Dreyfus for a nomination at the very least). That kind of buzz is why people maintain their HBO subscriptions, which is what keeps the pay-cable world rolling.
Girls, in addition, is fairly low-budget, on a network that often spends a fortune for projects that deliver lower ratings
and buzz (cough,
Luck, cough).
Next up for HBO–and barring a catastrophic failure, virtually certain to be the network’s kind of hit: Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, making its debut June 24th on the back of HBO’s best lead-in, True Blood.
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About the Author
Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."
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