When Conan O’Brien appeared on Hot Ones to promote his travel show Conan O’Brien Must Go, he addressed a point of confusion. “Is it HBO Max or just Max?” he asked. “Max, that really rolls off the tongue.” This interview was released almost a year after HBO’s streaming service, HBO Max, dropped the HBO from its name altogether, though it clearly wasn’t the most seamless transition.
“I have a show, it's on Max,” O’Brien said at the end of the interview. “They used to call it HBO, but people found that too popular, so now it's Max.” Now, however, it looks like popular demand has won out, because HBO Max is back, and we’re all just going to pretend Max never happened.
According to Variety, HBO CEO Casey Bloys announced that Max would revert to its previous name, HBO Max, starting this summer. The “Max” name lasted a little over two years since the company dropped the “HBO” in an attempt to underline how varied its content truly was.
HBO has always been the most prestigious part of the Max service, but ever since Warner Bros. merged with Discovery, Max has had The Sopranos and MILF Manor co-existing on the same streamer. By bringing HBO back into the name, Warner is reminding audiences that its biggest draw isn’t just any streaming service, but HBO.
This move doesn’t come completely out of nowhere. Recently, Max dropped its blue color scheme for a simple black-and-white aesthetic that echoed the classic TV-static HBO logo card, and the color scheme of the gone-but-not-forgotten solo HBO apps HBO Go and HBO Now.
It’s a walkback of an overwhelmingly unpopular choice, but after two years, viewers have gotten used to just saying “Max.” Will another change be difficult to adjust to? Warner Bros. Discovery is still trying to figure out its identity since the two companies merged in 2022, so let’s hope it’s finally recognized that its greatest strength is in prestige TV, not trashy reality shows.
