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.

Fans bid farewell to Bon Temps last night as True Blood wrapped its seven-season run with 4 million viewers.

The "Thank You" series finale -- highlighted by Sookie staking Bill, Eric and Pam flourishing in a blood business of their own and the rest of the surviving players in happy domesticity -- was down 2% from its sixth-season concluder. Adding the 11:30 p.m. replay, 4.5 million viewers watched True Blood's final original Sunday.  

Heading into the finale, True Blood's average gross audience across replays and multiplatform viewing totaled 9.4 million viewers. 

With Ana Pacquin, Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgard, Ryan Kwantem and Deborah Ann Woll providing a last live lead-in, penultimate episode of The Leftovers' first season reached a series' high 1.9 million viewer at 10:10 p.m. (ET). That number increased to 2.1 million with the 12:30 a.m. encore

Season-to-date, The Leftovers is averaging 7.3 milion in gross audience.

For its part on Friday, Aug. 22, the third episode of The Knick attracted a nightly gross viewership record of 754,000 viewers, a 15% jump from the 657,000 from its debut night. At 10 p.m. Cinemax operated with 407,000 viewers, with 190,000 and 157,000 tuning in at 11 p.m. and midnight (Saturday, Aug. 23), respectively.  The Knick has average gross audience of 2.7 million viewers for the season.

True Blood returned to HBO's lineup Sunday for its seventh and final season, counting 4 million viewers for its 9 p.m. premiere, down 11% from last season’s premiere audience.

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Added replays however – HBO drew an additional 1.8 million across replays at 10 p.m., 11:30 p.m. and 1 a.m. -- pushed True Blood’s cumulative total to 5.8 million viewers, up 4% from last year, which only benefited from one encore.

Next week, new series The Leftovers joins HBO’s lineup, airing out of True Blood at 10 p.m., as well as the Beyonce concert series X10 at 8:55 p.m.