HBO Boss Talks About Westworld Leaving The Platform And Moving To Free Platforms

HBO surprised some people recently when it canceled Westworld and announced that the existing seasons would shift to non-HBO platforms. Speaking to Variety, HBO programming boss Casey Bloys said the higher-ups spent some time thinking about what was the right amount of money to spend on HBO Max original shows. Second, the team considered if every HBO show needed to run on HBO. The answer was no.

The decision, in the case of Westworld, was to cancel the planned fifth season and shift Seasons 1-4 to free ad-support TV (FAST) channels.

"These are expensive shows to make. The idea that they're going to sit in a library forever and ever for $15 a month, that's never how TV has operated," Bloys said.

With this thinking, Bloys arrived at the idea to cut Westworld from HBO Max and sell it to FAST channels--in the case of Westworld, these include Roku and Tubi. Bloys made this decision after speaking with Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy.

"I think people sometimes forget there is a vast majority of the population that don't want to pay anything for a streaming service, not only [in the US], but internationally," Bloys said. "In the same way that Netflix was a brand new thing, let's throw some shows up there and expose it to a new audience and see how it does. I think you have to kind of dip your toe in and see what’s out there."

For what it's worth, though, Bloys admitted that he has "no idea" if FAST is going to take off and become a big business. "But I do know that some people don't want to pay and are OK with getting ads. And that's a potentially very big audience and a new audience for a show. So that's something we're trying," he said.

As mentioned, Westworld's planned fifth season is not going ahead, though the stars are still being paid for it. HBO's newest hit TV series is The Last of Us, which airs Sunday nights.