HBO Max Orders Pilots For American Blue & How To Survive With out Me, Following The Pitt’s Success Mannequin

HBO Max simply ordered two pilots for the Warner Bros.-owned streaming service, with The Pitt being seen because the mannequin for fulfillment going ahead. The Pitt debuted in January 2025 to stellar evaluations and a number of Emmy nominations and wins later within the yr, together with for star Noah Wyle, who performs Dr. Robby Robinavitch on the medical procedural.

In response to Deadline, HBO Max has ordered pilots for American Blue, a police drama being developed by Supernatural showrunner and producer Jeremy Carvey, and How one can Survive With out Me, a household drama created by none aside from multi-hyphenate TV producer Greg Berlanti, Robbie Rogers and Bash Doran.

Not solely is Carvey overseeing the pilot of American Blue, however he is writing the script and government producing as properly. His fellow government producer is Brian Udovich.

On American Blue, Brian “Milk” Milkovich is named again to his Illinois hometown to avoid wasting a troubled police power. Alongside the best way, he’ll search for redemption, although it is unclear at this level the rationale behind that objective.

HBO Max government Sarah Aubrey informed Deadline that the sequence might be “very a lot in [the] vein” of NYPD Blue and Hill Avenue Blues, and revealed that Carver and Udovich traveled to Joliet, Illinois, to be taught from the cops there as they began growing American Blue.

In the meantime, Berlanti, Rogers and Doran wrote the pilot script for How one can Survive With out Me, with Sarah Schechter and Leigh London Redman on board as government producers alongside Berlanti. This sequence follows grownup siblings as they cope with grief and love in Los Angeles.

HBO Max’s Aubrey defined that the streamer was “keen” to work with Berlanti on How one can Survive With out Me, particularly after the producer’s success on different household dramas like Brothers and Sisters and Everwood.

Apparently, Six Toes Beneath is one other sequence that is getting used as inspiration for How To Survive With out Me. The manager believes that viewers will really feel like they wish to “dwell and be an element” of the household featured on the present.

Berlanti has produced an infinite quantity of content material for the small display over time. Other than Brothers and Sisters and Everwood, he additionally developed the Arrowverse for The CW, which incorporates Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow and Superman & Lois.

Despite the fact that American Blue and How one can Survive With out Me usually are not medical dramas, the rationale they’re being in comparison with The Pitt has all the things to do with the format and the price range.

Whereas HBO and HBO Max have created very costly reveals like Sport of Thrones, The Pitt‘s success demonstrated to HBO executives that they will produce reveals with 15 or extra episodes per season, all whereas staying at an reasonably priced price range and releasing new seasons yearly.

It is turn into extra widespread in recent times for streaming companies to have two- or three-year breaks in between seasons, and people seasons have a tendency to incorporate only a few episodes, leading to quite a lot of criticism from followers on social media for reveals like Wednesday, Home of the Dragon and Stranger Issues.

The Pitt has confirmed that a greater format and launch mannequin not solely exists however can nonetheless work in right this moment’s tv panorama, and American Blue and How one can Survive With out Me plan to proceed that success.

The Pitt season 2 premieres Thursday, January 8, 2026, on HBO Max.