‘Big Little Lies’ episode 2, ‘Girls’ season 6, and ‘Crashing’ will debut early because of Oscar broadcast
Over the weekend, we gave HBO some credit for having the guts to air some of their original series — especially newcomers “Big Little Lies” and “Crashing” — up against the Academy Awards. This was certainly a big risk to take, especially when you consider some of the competition the two would be facing off against courtesy of the Academy Awards.
Today, the network made it clear that smartly, there will be some ways to watch these episodes without throwing them to the wolves against cinema’s biggest night. New episodes of all three shows will be made available on the network’s streaming platforms, including HBO GO and HBO NOW, starting on Friday. This means that there will be ample opportunity to see them without having to worry about picking between the shows and the Oscars. They’ve done this before with a few select shows here and there, and given that they operate under a subscriber model, we don’t exactly think that they care that much about having a smaller pool of live ratings than they would otherwise.
In particular, we know that the network has huge expectations for “Big Little Lies” given that the cast includes Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and Shailene Woodley. It’s probably the most star-studded series that the network’s ever had, and we say that even when you consider the first season of “True Detective” and the star power it was able to accumulate with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey.
We should get a better sense of what the premiere ratings for this specific show are at some point tomorrow, but as we mentioned in the preview for episode 2 yesterday, the thing to remember with the vast majority of HBO shows out there is that the numbers tend to increase as more and more people here about them. Regardless of whatever the network does to promote the show, the reality here is that there is no better marketing tool than the word of mouth of people who find the show themselves and legitimately seem to enjoy it.
Do you think that this is a smart move on HBO’s part to ensure that the viewers for these shows remain aware of them? Share in the comments below! (Photo: HBO.)