‘True Detective’ Episode 5 to Stream Early on Max This Week, Dodging the Super Bowl and Emphasizing Streaming
‘True Detective’ Episode 5 to Stream Early on Max This Week, Dodging the Super Bowl and Emphasizing Streaming
New episodes of “True Detective” normally drop on Sundays, but the broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII is compelling a change in the broadcast schedule.
Warner Bros. Discovery is used to owning Sunday nights with new releases of its original TV series, but this week it knows it has no chance to dominate the ratings. That’s because Super Bowl LVIII is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. ET on CBS this Sunday, and if last year’s numbers are any indication — Super Bowl LVII averaged 113 million viewers in 2023, making it the third-most-watched television program of all time — there won’t be much point to trying to air a competing program in that time slot. That’s part of the reasoning behind WBD’s decision to place its upcoming new episode of “True Detective” on its streaming service Max much earlier than its standard Sunday airtime.
- “True Detective” Episode 5 will be available to stream on Friday, Feb. 9 at 9 p.m. ET.
- The episode will air on its regular Sunday evening schedule on linear HBO as well.
- In 2023, HBO similarly decided to air a new episode of “The Last of Us” early on Max to avoid the Super Bowl.
When Will You Be Able to Watch ‘True Detective’ Episode 5?
Fans of the new season of “True Detective” will have two different ways of watching the upcoming new episode. Viewers can wait until Sunday night and watch on linear HBO at the regularly scheduled 9 p.m. ET release time, but those who don’t want to wait that long can enjoy it two days early by streaming it on Max. The episode will be available to stream on Max at 9 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 9.
The move is partially intended to help “True Detective” avoid a dearth of viewers thanks to the Super Bowl, but HBO programming is more insulated from the need to pull big ratings than other networks’ shows. This is because HBO does not air commercials with its shows, which mitigates the need to pull huge audiences in the name of collecting greater ad revenues. Max, of course, has an ad-supported tier, but WBD collects ad revenues from these customers no matter what time they watch a given title.
By shifting the release date of the next episode of “True Detective,” WBD gets point more subscribers to its streaming service by generating a little extra press for Max. It keeps the newest season of “True Detective,” which has a better critical score on Rotten Tomatoes than any preceding season, fresh in the minds of audiences, and it might just lead to a small subscriber bump for Max as well.
Are Other Networks Shifting Programming to Avoid the Super Bowl?
There is indeed a relative dearth of new premieres coming to TV during the Super Bowl this year, which is fairly standard for channels not hosting the Big Game. As is traditional for whichever channel hosts the big game, CBS will debut the first episode of a new series it thinks will do well with a broad audience after its Super Bowl broadcast is complete; this year, the series premiere of its thriller show “Tracker” will be the Super Bowl lead-out program.
New scripted series premieres have been few and far between this winter, as Hollywood is still getting back on its feet after the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that brought productions to a halt for a good portion of 2023. That means there have been fewer innovative marketing campaigns to bring attention to new shows like “The Last of Us,” which streamed its series premiere free to all viewers last year. Because there have been fewer titles released in general, streamers have not had to resort to such methods to make viewers aware of their new shows or help them stand out against the competition.
“True Detective” is following the pattern HBO laid out last year when it shifted the premiere date of an episode of “The Last of Us” to avoid competing with Super Bowl LVII. Fans of “True Detective” can devour the next episode of Season 4 on Friday, Feb. 9 at 9 p.m. ET, a full two days before its regularly-scheduled debut on linear HBO.
Max
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