2025 is already shaping up to be a strong year for HBO. On Sunday night, the network took home four Golden Globes for its 2024 television programming. Two of those awards were for Hacks Season 3, once more proving the sharp comedy’s impressively enduring allure (and ability to stave off The Bear‘s assumed hold on awards voters), while another was for Colin Farrell‘s leading performance in this past fall’s The Penguin. Farrell’s win — alongside that Batman movie spin-off’s near universal critical and commercial acclaim — position The Penguin as a key Emmys contender come fall 2025 and a major building block for DC comics’ future in TV and film.
These are the kinds of wins, in the wake of FX’s Shōgun and Netflix’s Baby Reindeer‘s non-stop 2024 supremacy, that give HBO much-needed awards season momentum to build off of in the new year. Also giving HBO and its streaming service MAX a huge boost? An insanely robust 2025 TV slate, full of long-awaited returning hits, the launch of shiny new franchise tentpoles, and the potentially the best scheduling synergy between the HBO and Max brands viewers have seen to date.
If 2024 was a year where HBO had to deal with the fallout of the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes with creativity and fortitude, 2025 should be the year where the brand reclaims its position at the top of the prestige TV and streaming service heap.
All of Hollywood suffered during 2023, but the year dealt a unique blow to HBO by stymying the immediate continuation of key franchises that had emerged in the wake of Game of Thrones‘s end. The White Lotus, The Last of Us, and Euphoria were the first three Sunday night dramas to come close to retaking the fantasy hit’s chokehold on the zeitgeist. While The White Lotus and The Last of Us‘s new seasons were both held up by, first, the WGA strike, and later, SAG-AFTRA’s, Euphoria Season 3 struggled to get off the ground thanks to a confluence of reported creative disputes, scheduling conflicts, and tragedy. So when HBO chief Casey Bloys hosted a theater full of entertainment insiders in November 2023, he not only had to address an embarrassing Rolling Stone report that he personally targeted critics on social media, but he also had to explain how HBO would fill its iconic 9 PM Sunday night slot all through 2024.
The answer? Already “in the can” limited series, UK-based productions like House of the Dragon and Industry, and two genre shows originally meant for MAX: The Penguin and Dune: Prophecy.
Looking back at HBO’s 2024 slate, perhaps the biggest irony is how the prestige cable brand was buttressed by its streaming partner’s offering. Besides the fact that awards darling Hacks is a MAX title, The Penguin was the network’s biggest new show of the year, showing the mettle of what a show developed for MAX could do when given HBO’s 9 PM Sunday slot. Dune: Prophecy followed suit, earning a second season order after a strong showing ratings-wise. Now that HBO’s got a stuffed schedule for 2025, MAX looks primed to become its own home of destination viewing. Working in tandem, the premium cable brand and its now-established streamer should expect ratings domination.
Sunday nights on HBO this year will be stacked with the returns of The White Lotus, The Last of Us, and The Gilded Age, along with the launch of IT: Welcome to Derry, a second Game of Thrones prequel (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), and Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby’s new project, Task. On the comedy tip, The Righteous Gemstones and The Rehearsal will be back for more mayhem, while internet faves Tim Robinson and Rachel Sennott will each debut their own original series. Elsewhere, a new season of 100 Foot Wave will join Celtics City and Pee-Wee as Himself on HBO’s illustrious doc slate. (There’s even an outside chance that Baby Reindeer mastermind Richard Gadd’s new HBO project, which he announced on the red carpet of the 2025 Golden Globes, might make the schedule, too.)
Not to be outdone, MAX leads the brand’s programming charge this year with the January 9 debut of The Pitt. The medical procedural has already been received with wildly favorable early reviews (including mine!) and reunites E.R. EP John Wells with Noah Wyle. (Basically, it should be a streaming slam dunk.) Major MAX hits And Just Like That… and Hacks will also be back with all-new episodes this year, much to subscribers’ delight. Finally, MAX will be the home of a new J.J. Abrams joint, Duster, staring Lost alum Josh Holloway as a getaway driver who teams up with the first Black female FBI agent in the early ’70s.
All in all, 2025 looks to be the year that HBO and MAX fully join forces to conquer TV on Sunday nights and on streaming. The prestige channel’s slate is its most anticipated in years and MAX’s offerings no longer feel like an afterthought, but a key strategic prong to Warner Bros. Discovery’s overall programming plan. TV fans are going to need MAX in 2025.
Complete List of Original Programming Coming to HBO and MAX in 2025:
Jan 9: The Pitt (MAX exclusive)
Jan 10: Bill Maher: Is Anyone Else Seeing This? (HBO/MAX)
Jan 16: Harly Quinn Season 5 (MAX exclusive)
Feb 16: The White Lotus Season 3 (HBO/MAX)
April 2025: The Last of Us Season 2 (HBO/MAX)
Late 2025: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO/MAX)
2025: The Righteous Gemstones Season 4 (HBO/MAX)
2025: And Just Like That… Season 3 (MAX exclusive)
2025: Celtics City (HBO/MAX)
2025: The Gilded Age Season 3 (HBO/MAX)
2025: Duster (MAX exclusive)
2025: Hacks Season 4 (MAX exclusive)
2025: The Rehearsal Season 2 (HBO/MAX)
2025: Pee-Wee As Himself (HBO/MAX)
2025: Task (HBO/MAX)
2025: The Chair Company (HBO/MAX)
2025: Peacemaker Season 2 (MAX exclusive)
2025: IT: Welcome to Derry (HBO/MAX)
2025: Untitled Rachel Sennott Project (HBO/MAX)
2025: 100 Foot Wave Season 3 (HBO/MAX)
2025: Conan O’Brien Must Go Season 2 (HBO/MAX)
The post Why TV Fans Are Going to Need MAX in 2025: ‘The White Lotus,’ ‘The Last of Us,’ ‘The Pitt,’ and More appeared first on Decider.
