HBO has long been a home for some of the most-talked about comedy stand-up specials such as Eddie Murphy’s Delirious! and Chris Rock’s Bring The Pain as well as over a dozen from George Carlin.
However, over the last few years, the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned network has faced streaming competitors with bulging wallets.
This is what made this morning’s news that HBO scored half of the nominations for a Golden Globe in the Best Performance In Stand-Up Comedy On Television category, going head-to-head with Netflix, which has the other three specials, significant.
HBO has Nikki Glaser: Someday You’ll Die, Seth Meyers: Dad Man Walking and Ramy Youssef: More Feelings competing against Netflix’s Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was, Adam Sandler: Love You and Ali Wong: Single Lady.
Last year, the first year the Golden Globes launched this category, Ricky Gervais beat Rock, Trevor Noah, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman and Wanda Sykes. Netflix had five of these with HBO airing Sarah Silverman: Someone You Love.
Nina Rosenstein, EVP, HBO Programming, Late Night and Specials, told Deadline, “We don’t really jump into those kind of bidding wars or whatever, we’ve built our brand on provocative, unique voices. We really spend a lot of time on every aspect of our specials, the aesthetics, the locations, the team behind them. I think that what we offer, and why it’s still a destination for stand-ups is that they know it’s going to feel special, and we’re going to really collaborate with them. For a lot of stand-ups, it’s such a personal art form. Sometimes, they’re spending years developing these shows. I think they know that when they work with us, it means as much to us as it does to them and all of them really grew up watching HBO specials with their heroes from George Carlin and Whoopi Goldberg. I think having an HBO special still feels like a right of passage as a stand-up.”
Netflix has premiered around 40 stand-up specials this year with Jim Gaffigan joking, “Stand up comedy is a brutal business. And thanks to Netflix, people get overpaid for it.”
Hulu has also made an aggressive bid to move into the market with one special per month from the likes of Bill Burr, Ilana Glazer, Roy Wood Jr. and Atsuko Okatsuka after the launch of its Jim Gaffigan special last month. The Burr special is understood to have cost around $15M as a result of multiple bidders.
HBO, on the other hand, aims for up to eight per year.
“We don’t have a number in mind. We like to do a very curated slate of specials. Sometimes there are six, but I don’t think we’ve ever done more than eight,” Rosenstein said.
She added that she enjoys working with new comedians on their first specials as well as those that are looking to do something slightly different, highlighting Jerrod Carmichael’s Rothaniel, which was directed by Bo Burnham, and Drew Michael’s special, which shot in a dark studio with no audience (and directed by Carmichael). “I love that the way we produce specials is evolving too. I love when someone says, ‘You may think this is a crazy idea’,” Rosenstein added.
Next up for HBO is Rose Matafeo’s On and On and On, which launches on December 19 and Bill Maher’s Is Anyone Else Seeing This?, which comes out early next year.
“I’m happy there’s this explosion and other outlets for comedians. We just stay true to the people that we want to be in business with,” she said.
English (US) ·