Warner Bros. Discovery is once again experimenting with sampling some of its premium pay TV and streaming content on its owned cable networks, this time sampling HBO‘s “True Detective: Night Country” and Max’s “Hacks.”
Beginning on March 28, “True Detective: Night Country,” which consists of six episodes, will air on TNT.
From April 3-7, “Hacks” will air its first three seasons on TBS with two episodes going back to back per night. The event leads into the “Hacks” Season 4 premiere April 10 on Max.
As is customary for mature content, the episodes will be edited to meet the standards and practices guidelines for cable.
While not the first time HBO content has aired on Warner Bros. Discovery’s cable networks — “Silicon Valley” and “True Blood” aired on TBS and TNT, respectively, in 2023 — this marks the first time the premium channel has released content that is currently airing or only recently ended, rather than older library titles that made their way to cable several years ago, such as “Sex and the City.”
The sampling experiment is led by Channing Dungey, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Television Group and US Networks, who is using her newly expanded role as chief of the portfolio of cable networks to drive viewership to cable while also targeting potential new subscribers for HBO and Max.
“We are excited to begin experimenting with new ways to utilize our incredible WB library and latest programming from our sister companies across our leading cable networks,” Dungey said. “With ‘Hacks’ and ‘True Detective: Night Country,’ we have award-winning, fan favorites to entice our viewers on networks and a compelling reason for HBO/Max viewers to engage with TNT and TBS, all in a virtuous cycle for WBD that elevates all our platforms and amazing shows.”
Warner Bros. Discovery brass began teasing the plans last month with CEO David Zaslav saying during a Morgan Stanley media conference: “Channing is already looking with Casey at bringing some of the HBO content that we wouldn’t sell to others. And we’ll be talking about that in the next couple of weeks of stuff that you’ll start seeing on TNT and TBS, which will be new to a lot of viewers in America, and we think we will provide real value in terms of viewership.”
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