HBO boss explains ‘True Detective’ – Emmy submission as drama series

Earlier this spring, HBO threw down what we personally like to think of as a rather enormous gauntlet when it comes to “True Detective”: They decided that they are going to submit the show as a drama series rather than a miniseries for the 2014 Emmy Awards.

Why make this move? It’s a definite show of confidence, especially when you consider that this is a series that could have qualified as a miniseries, and probably would have cleaned up there. Plus, “American Horror Story” has made a killing (horror pun intended) by submitting repeatedly as a miniseries in what has been considered a controversial move.

Speaking to Deadline about the big “True Detective” decision in particular, HBO head Michael Lombardo made it clear that this was a collaboration with the producers of the show, and a decision that while it may be risky, they feel like the show is worthy of the biggest prizes:

“I had a conversation with the executive producers whether we wanted to be in a possibly less competitive category if you treat this as a mini, but we never seriously considered doing so … Everyone wants to win awards, I understand that we are competing in the most competitive area, drama series, but it felt like the wrong reason to put it in a different category.”

First of all, we applaud HBO for being this brave; we almost want to hire Rust Cohle to sculpt them a medal out of beer cans for doing this. Granted, we do also think there is a strategic component in this decision, at least in that HBO has a number of TV movies that they want to see win awards in that category, and moving “True Detective” to series (where they may have had less of a chance with “Game of Thrones” as the only other threat) gives them better odds to clean house.

We’d love to see “True Detective” clean house, but above all else, we just have to say that we really want the show to start divulging details of its second season.

Photo: HBO