HBO chairman and CEO Casey Bloys had secret bogus social media accounts set up to respond to TV critics who tweeted out reviews of HBO programming he didn't like, according to a damning Rolling Stone report published Wednesday. 

Based on testimony stemming from a former HBO employee's wrongful termination suit against HBO, the article details how Bloys delegated subordinates to target certain critics on Twitter (recently rebranded as “X”). 

According to the report, in June 2020, while then serving as HBO programming chief, Bloys became "irked" at Vulture critic Kathryn VanArendonk after she shared her thoughts on X about HBO's reboot of Perry Mason.

“Dear prestige TV,” she tweeted. “Please find some way to communicate male trauma besides showing me a flashback to the hero’s memories of trench warfare.”

Bloys allegedly sent the tweet to Kathleen McCaffrey, HBO's senior VP of drama programming, remarking, “Maybe a Twitter user should tweet that that’s a pretty blithe response to what soldiers legitimately go through on [the] battlefield. Do you have a secret handle?

"Who can go on a mission?" Bloys is reported to have also asked. 

The Penske Media Group publication reported that McCaffrey enlisted the help of former executive assistant Sully Temori, plaintiff in the aforementioned lawsuit, to set up a fake X account to clandestinely post Bloys’s message:

“A somewhat elitist take,” it read. “Is there anything more traumatic for men (and now women) than fighting in a war. Sorry if that seems too convenient for you.” 

According to Rolling Stone, which spoke to Temori's attorney, Michael Martinez, the VanArendonk response was one of at least six instances between 2020 and 2021 — before Bloys was promoted to the HBO chief executive position — in which the executive is said to have orchestrated covert responses to tweets or Deadline story comments he didn't like.

(Martinez went on in Rolling Stone to allege a larger “harassing and discriminatory” culture at HBO. Perusing the lawsuit, however, the best example of what his client had to endure was allegedly being coerced (asked?) by his former bosses in the HBO drama department to play with some rescue kittens.)

In a statement provided to Next TV, HBO said it intends to fight Temori's suit, which names not only HBO and McCaffrey, but also  Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and two other producers for quickly canceled HBO series The Idol. (Temori had been promoted from his assistant role to production staffer on the failed show ... which HBO probably can't run away from fast enough at this point.)

The statement doesn’t deny Rolling Stone's description of Bloys’s alleged social media campaign, however.

“HBO intends to vigorously defend against Mr. Temori’s allegations,’ the statement reads. “We are not going to comment on select exchanges between programmers and errant tweets. We look forward to a full and fair resolution of this dispute. In the meantime, we wish Mr. Temori, a former HBO employee, well in his future endeavors.”

According to HBO insiders, Bloys is expected to address the fake tweet allegations head-on Thursday morning when he presents HBO’s coming program slate to TV writers in New York.

Fear not HBO fans, as chairman and CEO Casey Bloys assured attendees of the 2023 Code Conference in Laguna Niguel, California, Wednesday that the terms outlined in the tentative WGA-AMPTP deal will not affect the network’s programming.

“Is it going to be more expensive? Yeah, but I’m not going to say ‘I’m not going to make this show now,” Bloys said. “A good show is a good show is a good show … We’ve been through strikes before. It doesn’t affect the kinds of shows we make.”

Also read: HBO’s ‘Winning Time,’ Perhaps the One and Only Show to Watch on Max Right Now, Canceled After 2 Seasons

Bloys said he’s pleased the Writers Guild of America strike has come to an end with a deal brokered, but he shared some fear about the delicate economic state of the entertainment industry.

“We are in a moment in the industry that, you know, there’s a lot changing,” he said. “We’re coming out of a bubble, [and] still dealing with the fallout from that … It is not business as usual.”

Bloys also voiced his support to picketing writers, describing some of the issues of the strike as “existential.”

“I’m happy it’s done,” he said. “I will take the positive and say I’m glad that it has not gone on till January … And I want everybody to feel that they’ve gotten a good deal and are ready to get back to work. So that’s what I’m most concerned about.”

Bloys refused to elaborate on the specifics of the deal because “everybody needs to ratify it.”

However, he stressed the importance of adapting and trying new strategies in order to navigate the inevitable changes coming for the industry.

“I think we’re in a phase now — trying things,” Bloys said. “The conventional wisdom for the last 10 years [was] that you keep everything in-house. But in the history of television and HBO, syndication — selling your show somewhere else — that meant your show was successful [and] would have a life elsewhere.”

Earlier this summer, HBO reached a deal with Netflix in order to bring Issa Rae’s Insecure to the rival platform, among other titles. Reported as a financial decision from parent Warner Bros. Discovery rather than HBO, the distribution of content to other streamers could help make money for both studios and the freshly contracted writers.

“[WBD CEO] David [Zaslav] has done a very good job right-sizing,” Bloys said. ‘When David took over it was ‘subscriptions at all cost’ to ‘we’ve got to make money.’ I think it was the right tone for trying to figure out ‘how do we do this in streaming and have it make sense? ’”

HBO is already set to return to filming after the strikes, with script writing for The Last of Us, Euphoria and The White Lotus reported as its top priorities. Real Time With Bill Maher is set to return this Friday, and Last Week With John Oliver will return on Sunday for the first time since the WGA strike began.

Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed that it signed HBO programming president Casey Bloys to a new five-year agreement.

Following the acquisition of HBO parent WarnerMedia by Discovery, the merged company is expected to go through a wave of personnel cuts as it looks to deliver on the $3 billion in cost reductions it has promised Wall Street. But Bloys was one WarnerMedia executive Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav needed to keep. 

Bloys is a key to creating the kind of content at HBO and HBO Max that will attract and retain subscribers, a key to making WBD a player in the streaming market as it sorts out how it will offer brands including HBO, Discovery, CNN and Turner Sports directly to consumers.

Under Bloys, HBO and HBO Max received 108 Emmy nominations, topping Netflix, which got 105.

Bloys was named to his current position in 2016. He was named president of HBO series, late night and specials in 2016. Before that he was executive VP, responsible for comedy series, late night and specials.

He has overseen the production and development of series including Flight of The Conchords, Eastbound and Down, Veep, Girls, Ballers, Silicon Valley, Enlightened, Getting On, Insecure and Barry. Since overseeing the drama group, HBO has launched Westworld, Big Little Lies, The Deuce, My Brilliant Friend, Sharp Objects and a third installment of HBO’s hugely successful True Detective. Bloys has overseen the limited series Chernobyl as well as Euphoria, Succession and Watchmen.

Prior to HBO, he was director, development, for Wass-Stein Productions, from 2000 to 2004. He began his career as an assistant in the current and development departments of CBS.

On Friday WBD said it signed new agreements with longtime Zaslav lieutenant Bruce Campbell, now chief revenue and strategy officer, and chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels.

Campbell got a raise in his base salary to $2.5 million from $1.8 million annually. His target bonus was also boosted to 200% of salary from 150%. He also gets restricted stock units worth $2 million and is eligible for annual equity grants of $8.5 million.

Wiedenfels’s salary goes up to $2 million from $1.7 million a year and his target bonus rises to 175% of salary from 150%. He received a one-time restricted stock grant worth $2 million and will be eligible for annual stock grants worth $8 million. ■

HBO’s drama series Watchmen was the most celebrated scripted series at the 72nd Emmy Awards this past September, winning 11 awards and pacing the cable network to an industry-high 30 statuettes — a feat achieved despite having nearly 60 less nominations than rival Netflix.

Yet exceeding expectations is nothing new for Bloys. Since taking over the position at the leading premium service in 2016, he’s always answered the call from viewers and critics as to whether the service can continually remain the industry’s leader in creative, innovative and entertaining scripted content. The question most recently was posed after Emmy record-holder Game of Thrones ended its eight-season run in 2019. Bloys’s post-Thrones answer was not only the development of Watchmen, but also the successful and Emmy Award-winning series such as  Succession, Big Little Lies and Euphoria.

“As long as we continue to find talented artists with something to say, we hope we will do well with the Emmys,” Bloys said. “Total nominations and wins may fluctuate year to year, but we are not changing our strategy of betting on the storytellers.”

Now with HBO Max under his creative belt, Bloys has a wide canvas to develop original content for an ever-growing digital audience. 

“We try to keep in mind that the goal for HBO Max is to broaden the audience for HBO,” Bloys said. “While HBO will continue to produce the kinds of shows you would expect, the shows for HBO Max will continue to push into new genres, like reality, DC [superhero franchises], tentpole dramas and young adult content.”

Indeed, the future success of the subscription-based HBO Max service relies on the fortunes of its anchor HBO. Given the successful runs of such acclaimed series as Lovecraft Country and I May Destroy You this year, as well as the 2021 returns of “Succession” and multiple Emmy Award-nominated comedy series Insecure — along with new limited series Mare of Easttown with Kate Winslet and The White Lotus from Mike White — Bloys is poised to keep HBO in its creative leadership position and to make even more noise during the 2021 Emmy season.

Beverly Hills, Calif. — HBO programming president Casey Bloys was on the hot seat Wednesday at the network's TCA summer press tour session as TV critics peppered the executive with questions about the network’s controversial new series Confederate.

Complete coverage of the 2017 TCA Summer Press Tour.

The series, which will be produced by Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and will depict what the nation would look like if the South had won the Civil War, drew initial backlash when ammounced, from critics concerned about how the issue of race, and slavery in particular, would be portrayed.

Related: HBO Greenlights ‘Confederate’ From ‘Game of Thrones’ Producers

Bloys said the network’s decision to announce the show via a press release without any context from the producers was “misguided” and should have been handled differently.

“If I had to do it over again I would have let the producers sit and talk about it,” Bloys said. “The key to all of this is the context and hearing from the creators. All we can do is ask people to judge the final product rather than what it could be or might be.”

MCN Flashback > TCA16: HBO's Casey Bloys Takes Heat During TCA Session

Bloys also said the long anticipated revival of Western-themed series Deadwood is coming closer to fruition, adding that he’s excited about the new script for the David Milch series, which ran on HBO from 2004-2008. “If we can do it for a budget that makes sense and we can get the cast together then we’re inclined to do it," Bloys said. 

He also said the network is close to greenlighting a third season of its anthology series True Detective, which will feature Moonlight actor Mahershala Ali. “I’m very impressed and excited about what I’ve read,” Bloys said of the script for True Detective.

Bloys also addressed the Game Of Thrones spinoffs, saying that none of the characters in the current Game Of Thrones series will appear in any of the series followups.   

Read more TCA '16 summer tour coverage

HBO Casey Bloys’ won’t soon forget his first appearance at the Television Critics Association summer tour since being named the network’s programming president after taking some critical questions from TV writers.

As Bloys confirmed the end of the network’s biggest show Game Of Thrones after its eighth season he was hit with several questions from reporters about Thrones and new series Westworld's sexualized violence against women, including rape.

While Bloys said that the concerns are valid, he said that the violence cuts across both men and women, jokingly adding “we’re going to kill everybody.”

Bloys -- who took over the position this past spring from the departed Michael Lombardo -- said Game Of Thrones will not be eligible for the 2017 Emmys season because of the late summer launch of its seventh season, but added he’s confident the network will still have enough content to continue its run as the top Emmy-nominated network in the industry. Game Of Thrones earlier this month earned an industry high 23 Emmy nominations.

“Even without Game Of Thrones my hope is that we will have some new candidates that will help keep our count up,” Bloys said.

HBO Renews 'Real Time With Bill Maher'

Bloys also discussed several other issues during the session, including being open to a third season its anthology crime series True Detective if the network can find the right take on the franchise. He added the network could continue the franchise without creator/writer Nic Pizzolatto taking the lead.

-- The new Jon Stewart digital animated series could debut later this fall, according to Bloys. The series will be revolve around a parody of a fictional cable news network.

-- Bloys also said canceling the The Mick Jagger/Martin Scorsese music series Vinyl was a difficult decision. The series had been greenlit for a second season after its first episode, but the show struggled from a ratings perspective.

 “We didn’t think it was worth the producer’s time our time our resources to try to thread the needle just a little bit,” he said.

HBO’s signature series Game of Thrones will launch its seventh season next summer, the network said Monday.

The series, which garnered a TV series high 23 Emmy nominations last week, will begin filming its seventh season later this summer, according to Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming. The series typically debuts in April, but Bloys said the network will delay the premiere to “accommodate the shooting schedule” of the fantasy series.

“Now that winter has arrived on Game of Thrones, executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing,” said Bloys in a statement.

New HBO programming head Casey Bloys will shepherd an impressive stable of scripted dramas, comedies, original movies and specials — the envy of most content distributors across virtually all distribution platforms — but he also has some holes to fill going forward.

Bloys replaces former president of programming Michael Lombardo. Under Lombardo, HBO last year racked up the greatest Emmy Awards performance in history, taking home a network record 43 of them in September, including a record haul of 12 for signature series Game of Thrones.

Bloys, who is also overseeing documentaries, films, sports and Cinemax programming, is in command of an upcoming slate HBO hopes will continue to thrive against emerging powers Netf lix, Amazon and Hulu along with more conventionally distributed rivals such as Showtime, Starz and FX.

With Game of Thrones winding down — it’s signed for another season and likely to have an eighth season, too, but showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss intimate the end is near — industry observers have wondered what HBO has cooking in terms of potential replacements.

High-profile springtime newcomer Vinyl, from creators Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese and starring Bobby Cannavale and Ray Romano, failed to live up to the hype, although it will return for one more go-round.

Vinyl averaged 4.3 million viewers across multiple plays and screens, according to HBO. Juggernaut Game of Thrones, by contrast, averaged 7.8 million viewers for its May 22 episode.

Sources close to the network say Bloys — who focused mostly on comedy series, late night and specials projects at HBO before adding drama series when executive vice president Michael Ellenberg left earlier in the year — already has his hands on a number of high-profile projects scheduled for this year. They include 1970s porn-themed The Deuce, from producer David Simon (The Wire, Treme); and an adapation of Westworld from Star Trek and Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams.

Comedies Insecure from Issa Rae and Vice Principals, starring Danny McBride, are also in the queue, and drama series The Leftovers will continue with a third and final season.

Lombardo — credited with reviving HBO after a post-Sopranos creative slump with such shows as Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, True Detective and Girls — moves into a production role and will develop projects for the network.

His departure, after more than 30 years at the Time Warner Inc.-owned programmer, hit the trades the afternoon of Friday, May 20. The appointment of Bloys was announced May 23.

HBO chairman and CEO Richard Plepler praised Lombardo in a statement: “It goes without saying that Mike’s contributions over these many years, most especially in the last nine as president of programming, have been nothing short of extraordinary.”

Along with Ellenberg’s departure, HBO in December named longtime executive Peter Nelson as executive vice president of HBO Sports, replacing Ken Hershman, who had resigned a month prior.