True Detective season 3, Game of Thrones, & Big Little Lies: Schedule chatter

Moving into 2018, it’s pretty darn clear at the moment that HBO has quite the scheduling issue on their hands. They have three enormous series in True Detective season 3, Game of Thrones season 8, and Big Little Lies season 2, and they have to find a way in order to properly fit them all in. That is not an easy thing to pull off, and we feel that way even more right now thanks to the fact that Watchmen is also going to premiere next year.

So how is the network going to fit all of these shows in? For starters, we imagine that they are going to be a little creative. Beyond that, we think it helps that none of them have particularly long seasons. below, you can see some predictions for where we think that all of these shows are going to land … with a reminder, of course, that this is pure speculation based on past programming decisions.

Big Little Lies – Production-wise, this is probably the easiest of the three shows to edit and get together by the start of the year. It doesn’t have elaborate action sequences and most of the story is performance-based. We foresee a premiere here in late or early February, the week following the Super Bowl. We don’t think HBO would be as concerned about it airing opposite award season, and this is also when it aired in 2017.

Game of Thrones – HBO confirmed already that the final season will premiere at some point in the first half of 2019, and there is little reason to not believe him. For us, we believe that an April start date seems to be most likely just because that would fit what Casey Bloys promised and also keep the show away from competition like the Oscars. It would also be done by the start of the summer, given that the final season is only six episodes.

True Detective – The second season aired in the summer, and at present, we believe that the third season will due the same. We wouldn’t be shocked if it and Game of Thrones swapped places and both premiered earlier than expected, but this series probably won’t have the hype around it as much and HBO can spend time during Game of Thrones promoting it. That seems to be the smartest move in terms of getting the word out.

Is it possible that HBO airs two of these shows at the same time? Sure, but from a perspective of keeping subscriptions, that doesn’t make the most sense.

Where do you think the schedule is going to lie for True Detective, Game of Thrones, and Big Little Lies? Share right now below!

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