Luckily for Noah Wyle, the CEO and chairman of HBO and Max’s original content, Casey Bloys, agrees with him — which he discussed in detail during a March interview with Vulture called “Max’s Big Bet on ‘The Pitt’ Paid Off.” As Bloys put it, “The Pitt” harkens back to network TV shows of yore, which used to contain over 20 episodes per season, and though “The Pitt” will stick with 15 episodes despite Bloys openly telling interviewer Josef Adalian he wanted more than that, Bloys said he too plans for the show to air every January.

“The other really important thing about this model, and is somewhat of a lost art […] is, the second season will premiere in January of 2026, a year later,” Bloys all but confirmed (considering that he, moreso than Wyle, can make this happen). “This model of more episodes cuts down on the gap between seasons. On the platform, we have shows like ‘House of the Dragon,’ ‘The Last of Us,’ and ‘White Lotus,’ which, because of how they’re made, can take two years to make. What I love about something like The Pitt is, I can get 15 episodes in a year. That’s a really great addition to what we’re already doing on the platform. And I’d like to do more shows in this model.” Bloys also told Adalian that his programming slate needs to be “diverse” and that while “The Last of Us” and “House of the Dragon” are great “big-event” shows, they only provide a handful of weeks of audience engagement, and shows like “The Pitt” help keep the schedule full.

Not only that, but Bloys had one more promise up his sleeve … and so far, he’s stuck to this one. Instead of airing new episodes of streaming-only shows in the middle of the night (ahem, Netflix), Bloys had a much better idea for Max. “When I started with the Max platform, I said, ‘Why are we releasing shows at midnight?’ and I got some answer like, ‘Well, when we report the numbers, you want as much data from the night before as possible, blah, blah, blah …’ It didn’t make a lot of sense,” Bloys said. “People like appointment television. Now look, the majority of the people watching ‘The Pitt’ or ‘The White Lotus’ will watch off premiere night. But I do think there is something significant about having a day and time for release. We’ve all gotten a bit more savvy about how and when people are watching on streaming and how to measure that. So, I believe in releasing shows on a Thursday night or Sunday night.” For a Max exclusive like “The Pitt,” making it “appointment TV” in this way is brilliant, and it does in fact air on Thursdays at 9 P.M. EST.