HBO developing more Newsroom

HBO has ordered a second season of Aaron Sorkin’s cable news drama The Newsroom.

This comes despite a mounting backlash from US television critics. The Time Warner-owned network has made the order after the Jeff Daniels-fronted series debuted to 2.1 million viewers, its third biggest drama launching in the last four years following Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones.

Michael Lombardo, president of programming at HBO, told TBI: “It doesn’t have to be the biggest audience – it doesn’t need to be everybody’s favourite show, it just has to be somebody’s favourite show.”

He added that the series garnered an “incredible” emotional response during early screenings. “Sorkin is Sorkin,” he said. “It’s great when critics love our shows but that’s not essential for us.”

Separately, HBO has also ordered a sixth season of vampire series True Blood. This will be the first season not run by Alan Ball, although Ball will remain as an executive producer for the series, based on the Charlane Harris novels.