These are the most popular TV series of all time on HBO, creating shocks, fevers that attracted millions of viewers around the world at the time of their release.
HBO was one of the ''golden movie channels'', with careful care and investment in production, contributing to molding many dramas and movies that won major awards.'
In fact, if you are really an American drama 'nerd', and realize that you are living in the 'golden age of drama,' then you should express a special appreciation to HBO.
Let's review the list of 5 TV series produced by HBO with the public that are the most popular of all time, to see if you accidentally miss any series.
1. Boardwalk Empire movie series (2010)
IMDb RATING: 8.6/10
Boardwalk Empire is an American period crime drama television series created by Terence Winter and broadcast on the premium cable channel HBO. The series is set chiefly in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era of the 1920s and stars Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson. Winter, a Primetime Emmy Award-winning screenwriter and producer, created the show, inspired by Nelson Johnson's 2002 non-fiction book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, about the historical criminal kingpin Enoch L. Johnson.
Boardwalk Empire received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for its visual style and basis on historical figures, as well as for Buscemi's lead performance. The series received 57 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including two for Outstanding Drama Series, winning 20. The series also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama in 2011 and two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2011 and 2012.
HBO also sponsored an Atlantic City beautification project with the tagline "Compliments of Nucky Thompson" and paid for eastbound tolls into Atlantic City on the AC Expressway for the weekend of September 24, 2011.
On its original airing, the pilot episode gained a 2.0/5 ratings share among adults aged 18–49 and garnered 4.81 million viewers. The episode was re-played twice that night, once at 10:15 p.m. and again at 11:30 p.m. Taking these broadcasts into account, a total of 7.1 million Americans viewed the episode on the night of its original broadcast, and is the highest rated premiere for an HBO series since the pilot of Deadwood in March 2004. The season finale was watched by 3.29 million viewers, attaining a 1.3 rating among adults aged 18–49.
2. Insecure movie series (2016)
IMDb RATING: 8.1/10
Insecure is an American comedy-drama television series created by Issa Rae and Larry Wilmore, and is partially based on Rae's acclaimed web series Awkward Black Girl. The series is about the awkward experiences of a contemporary African-American woman. The series premiered online on September 23, 2016, via HBO Now and HBO Go, before airing weekly on HBO from October 9, 2016.
Insecure received critical acclaim since its debut in 2016. In 2017, the American Film Institute selected it as one of the top 10 television programs of the year. In 2020, the series received eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations for its fourth season, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. For her performance on the series, Rae received two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy, in addition to three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (2018, 2020 and 2022). Yvonne Orji received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2020 for her performance in the series.
The series began airing on Oprah Winfrey Network on February 7, 2023, with two back-to-back episodes. In July 2023, the series was added to Netflix in the U.S., making it the first HBO series to be available on Netflix.
3. Silicon Valley movie series (2014)
IMDb RATING: 8.5/10
Silicon Valley is an American comedy television series created by Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky. It premiered on HBO on April 6, 2014, and concluded on December 8, 2019, running for six seasons for a total of 53 episodes.
Silicon Valley is America's most popular comedy drama. The film revolves around 5 young men with plans to establish a company in Silicon Valley in the context of a widespread high-tech fever. Although it has come out to season 5, the hotness of this long-running comedy has not shown any signs of cooling down.
Silicon Valley has been honored to bring HBO the prestigious Emmy Award and many nominations at the Golden Globe Awards of the year.
The series received critical acclaim, with praise for its writing and humor. It was nominated for numerous accolades, including five consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series.
4. Westworld movie series (2016)
IMDb RATING: 8.5/10
Westworld is an American dystopian science fiction Western television series created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy that first aired on October 2, 2016, on HBO. It is based upon the 1973 film of the same name written and directed by Michael Crichton and loosely upon its 1976 sequel, Futureworld.
The story begins in Westworld, a fictional, technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populated by android "hosts". The park caters to high-paying guests who may indulge their wildest fantasies within the park without fear of retaliation from the hosts, who are prevented by their programming from harming humans. Later on, the series' setting expands to the real world, in the mid-21st century, where people's lives are driven and controlled by a powerful artificial intelligence named Rehoboam.
Westworld's debut on HBO had the network's highest viewership ratings for a premiere since the first episode of True Detective, in 2014. Westworld's first season is still the most-watched first season of any HBO original series. The first season also received critical acclaim and was highly praised for its performances, visuals, narrative, themes and soundtrack from Ramin Djawadi. Reception of the series declined from the second season onwards, with the scripts, characterization and narrative opacity being targeted for criticism; viewership ratings also diminished throughout its run. It received numerous awards, winning nine Primetime Emmy Awards out of 54 nominations. Thandiwe Newton won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2018.
The series premiere had viewership numbers slightly less than those for True Detective, but much better than Vinyl, meaning that it was seen as "...off to a relatively promising start." The U.S. series premiere attracted 1.96 million viewers, with 0.8 million in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic. The premiere episode received 3.3 million viewers for its three Sunday night airings as well as on HBO's streaming platforms. The season one finale received 2.2 million viewers for its initial broadcast, and increased to 3.5 million including replays and on-demand viewing. The first season had an average cumulative viewership of 12 million viewers, making it the most-watched first season of an HBO series, and TorrentFreak gauged Westworld as the third-most-torrented television show of 2016.
5. The Comeback series (2005)
IMDb RATING: 8.1/10
The Comeback is an American comedy-drama television series produced by HBO that stars Lisa Kudrow as sitcom actress Valerie Cherish in modern-day Los Angeles. It was created by Kudrow and Michael Patrick King, a former executive producer of Sex and the City. Kudrow and King are also screenwriters and executive producers of the series, with King also serving as the director of some episodes. The series originally aired for a single season of 13 episodes from June 5 to September 4, 2005.
The drama is a funny story that revolves around the life of sitcom actress Valerie Cherish in the heart of modern-day Los Angeles society. The series is a satirical laugh, full of satire in the face of the realities in the television entertainment industry.
According to HBO, the show drew an average of 1.4 million viewers across its channels and on demand – Kudrow said she has not "heard it officially," but that she and King have gotten the impression that the door is open for more. Soon, she hopes she and King will begin to "talk about what more would look like."
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