{"id":69200,"date":"2023-11-02T11:27:48","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T11:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/likecelebwn.com\/?p=69200"},"modified":"2023-11-02T11:27:48","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T11:27:48","slug":"hbos-ceo-casey-bloys-wanted-a-secret-army-online-hyping-hbo-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/likecelebwn.com\/celebrities\/hbos-ceo-casey-bloys-wanted-a-secret-army-online-hyping-hbo-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"HBOs CEO Casey Bloys wanted a secret army online, hyping HBO shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.celebitchy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/avalon-0682768574.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>When <em>Succession<\/em> was on the air, I would watch each episode in real time and follow the chatter on social media.  There was an amazing community of <em>Succession<\/em> devotees, and while I believe the overwhelming majority of them were simply real people who loved the show, it always felt like there were a few HBO PR people in the mix as well, helping the hype train.  I\u2019ve felt that way about certain Netflix shows too, that certain Twitter users just seem way too invested in hyping completely random shows.  I always thought <em>\u201cyeah, paid PR.\u201d<\/em>  That\u2019s exactly what it was and is, and now Rolling Stone has the receipts.  Or at least some partial receipts from HBO.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In June 2020, HBO\u2019s then-president of original programming Casey Bloys needed someone to \u201cgo on a mission.\u201d  Bloys \u2014 who was named HBO\u2019s CEO and chairman in October 2022 \u2014 was irked by a tweet from Vulture TV critic Kathryn VanArendonk, who had some thoughts about Perry Mason, HBO\u2019s series starring Matthew Rhys as a private detective turned defense attorney in 1930s Los Angeles. <\/p>\n<p>The remake of the original 1960s show carves out an origin story for Mason, showing flashes of him serving in World War I, which VanArendonk felt was weak storytelling. Days before the series aired on the platform (VanArendonk seemingly had a screener for review) she subtweeted the series. \u201cDear prestige TV,\u201d she wrote, \u201cPlease find some way to communicate male trauma besides showing me a flashback to the hero\u2019s memories of trench warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bloys was annoyed, according to text messages reviewed by Rolling Stone, and sent VanArendonk\u2019s tweet to Kathleen McCaffrey, HBO\u2019s senior vice president of drama programming. \u201cMaybe a Twitter user should tweet that that\u2019s a pretty blithe response to what soldiers legitimately go through on [the] battlefield,\u201d he texted. \u201cDo you have a secret handle? Couldn\u2019t we say especially given that it\u2019s D-Day to dismiss a soldier\u2019s experience like that seems pretty disrespectful\u2026 this must be answered!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bloys was serious. \u201cWho can go on a mission,\u201d he asked McCaffrey, according to the messages, adding they needed to find a \u201cmole\u201d at \u201carms length\u201d from the HBO executive team. \u201cWe just need a random to make the point and make her feel bad.\u201d  Eventually, Bloys landed on a rebuttal to VanArendonk, according to the messages: \u201cA somewhat elitist take. Is there anything more traumatic for men (and now women) than fighting in a war. Sorry if that seems too convenient for you.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The exchange was one of at least six instances between June 2020 and April 2021 in which Bloys and McCaffrey discussed using what they called a \u201csecret army\u201d to fire back at several TV critics on Twitter as well as anonymous commenters on articles about HBO programming, according to text exchanges reviewed by Rolling Stone. In this case, the two decided not to hit back at VanArendonk online. But in numerous instances, the HBO execs did just that, trolling the television critics with snarky responses from a fake Twitter account \u2014 and dropping pro-HBO comments on trade publication stories. <\/p>\n<p>(Rolling Stone reviewed the metadata associated with the messages, and verified their authenticity by linking the sender of the messages to a phone number registered to McCaffrey. What\u2019s more, in four of the six cases, the language of the texts is an exact match for the language from the anonymous accounts.) <\/p>\n<p>HBO did not dispute the legitimacy of the messages when approached for comment by Rolling Stone. In a statement, a HBO spokesperson said it would not \u201ccomment on select exchanges between programmers and errant tweets.\u201d VanArendonk confirmed she wrote the tweet but declined to comment further. <\/p>\n<p>The messages are part of a trove of material being prepared for a previously unreported wrongful termination lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in July by former HBO staffer Sully Temori against HBO, McCaffrey, HBO\u2019s head of drama Francesca Orsi, as well as Abel \u201cThe Weeknd\u201d Tesfaye and two producers for The Idol.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>[From Rolling Stone]<\/p>\n<p>I love that people are all up in arms about this!  Please, this is the tip of the iceberg, and I guarantee that Netflix already has a fake-user army of paid PR people hyping their projects and pouring scorn on the haters.  In fact, I\u2019m shocked by how low-fi this HBO operation was &#8211; surely Casey Bloys should have contacted HBO\u2019s communications\/publicity department rather than his VP.  I\u2019m sure HBO\u2019s comms people would have covered it very easily.  As for the argument that HBO executives shouldn\u2019t hide behind a fake user name to yell at critics or hype their projects in the comment sections of trade papers\u2026 lol.  I mean, I live in the real world.  This story is so funny and hilariously childish.  <em>\u201cA TV critic said something I didn\u2019t like, we must send a haughty tweet about it, but we shouldn\u2019t leave our fingerprints on it!\u201d  <\/em><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also stupid because Bloys actually had a solid point, and if he had made it himself &#8211; by tweeting at the critic openly or leaving a comment at Vulture &#8211; his point would have helped hype the show.  The lesson here: if you\u2019re a TV executive who wants to make a petty point against a TV critic, do it openly so everyone can enjoy the beef.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.celebitchy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/the-idol-poster.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.celebitchy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/perry-mason1.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p><small>Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, HBO\/Max.<\/small><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.celebitchy.com\/843333\/hbos_ceo_casey_bloys_wanted_a_secret_army_online_hyping_hbo_shows\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Succession was on the air, I would watch each episode in real time and follow the chatter on social media. There was an amazing community of Succession devotees, and while I believe the overwhelming majority of them were simply real people who loved the show, it always felt like there were a few HBO [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>HBOs CEO Casey Bloys wanted a secret army online, hyping HBO shows - Like celeb WN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/likecelebwn.com\/celebrities\/hbos-ceo-casey-bloys-wanted-a-secret-army-online-hyping-hbo-shows\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"HBOs CEO Casey Bloys wanted a secret army online, hyping HBO shows - Like celeb WN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Succession was on the air, I would watch each episode in real time and follow the chatter on social media. 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