HBO’s three-hour stint at the Television Critics Association press tour is going to begin shortly – including a highly-anticipated panel for “The Newsroom”(*) – but the network has already put out press releases for several of the announcements co-presidents Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo will be making, including the decision to pair “Girls” and “Enlightened” in January.
(*) Often, panels that we expect to be memorable trainwrecks turn out to be anything but. It’s entirely possible that Aaron Sorkin will charm our socks off, or that he’ll wear us out by repeating the same answers he’s given to complaints about “The Newsroom,” and all the anticipation will amount to nothing. We’ll see. I’ll either be live-blogging it or writing it up immediately after the panel ends.
The first season of “Girls” debuted this past March, while season 1 of “Enlightened” aired last fall. “Girls” got several major Emmy nominations, and “Enlightened” won a devoted following among some TV critics (though the show never quite clicked with me) and became the only one of HBO’s fall comedies to be renewed. “Girls” had been partnered with “Veep” a year ago; I imagine we’ll find out in the executive session why it’s being delayed.
Keep in mind also that January was the point in HBO’s scheduling when “Luck” season 2 was supposed to air, and with no new shows far enough along in their development to debut that early, my assumption is that the two comedies will be picking up the slack in between “Boardwalk Empire” in the fall and “Game of Thrones” in the spring. (If Plepler and Lombardo say otherwise, I’ll update this post.)