2020. What a year. From a global pandemic to a nail-biting election, there was never a dull moment — but we never lost our sense of humor or let our empathy wane. Instead, we made voter face masks, handed out drag queen names, and offered up quarantine buddies. We made joy out of melancholy and had all the fun doing it. In short, 2020 tried its best to keep us down, but we tried harder to stay up. Here’s how.

STAY HOME BOX OFFICE

The global pandemic caused a major shift in the way we live. Early on, we were issued “stay at home” orders, while face masks became the norm. Going out stopped being an option, and suddenly we all had a lot more time on our hands.

So, in addition to tweeting about these unprecedented times, we gave people a reason to love staying in — namely a slate of series, documentaries, and movies that were free to all, no subscription required.

In addition to giving viewers free access to hundreds of hours of content, we also offered other ways to stay occupied while stuck inside — a scavenger hunt to gamify the free viewing experience, as well as an Instagram Story to help people find their HBO Quarantine Buddy.

VOTE BECAUSE

Voting matters, but this year it really mattered. And while many made it about who people should vote for, we made it about what people should vote for. We created a voter awareness campaign and activist platform empowering people to fight for what they believe in through a star-studded PSA, the distribution of voter mask kits, Instagram stickers, and free access to award-winning documentaries.

Voter Kits

Stickers

Twitter

Instagram

Instagram Stories

WE’RE HERE DRAG NAMES

To celebrate the premiere of We’re Here, we teamed up with three notable members of the drag queen community and anointed viewers with their very own drag name. All fans had to do was respond with their hometown to get a unique name in real time. Yas.

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM
20TH ANNIVERSARY

When the most curmudgeon-y show on television celebrates its 20th anniversary, you make a big deal out of it. In this case, we celebrated Curb Your Enthusiasm with a custom Instagram filter, throwback posts, a video looking back at some of the best cameos, and a live Twitter response thread where we offered Larry-inspired reactions to people’s hobbies. It was pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Twitter

Curb Your Hobbies on Twitter

Instagram Stories

Instagram Reels

Vintage Larry on Instagram

20 Years of Cameos

TWITTER

There’s a thin line between comedy and tragedy, and it’s called Twitter. This year, we had our share of fun, but addressed the issues that matter, too. Because when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade — or at the very least, tweet about it.

And while we had some fun, we understood the importance of using our voice to stand up for what is right.

INSTAGRAM

A picture says a thousand words, and when you add some more words to those pictures, you get our Instagram feed. We set out to make it the weighted blanket everyone needed, and we can confidently say: mission accomplished.

INSTAGRAM STORIES

Our Stories were chock-full of interactive games, engaging polls, and hilarious sound bites from our award-winning shows — a pocket-size carnival of distractions for an unprecedented year.

TIKTOK

HBO content has no limits — we proved that again this year by launching our TikTok account and seeing a new generation of fans engage with classic and new HBO programs: one clip at a time.

YOUTUBE

Our YouTube page has always been a place for fans to get even more of their HBO favorites. This year, we focused on curating editorialized videos that let viewers dive deeper into various aspects of their favorite HBO show — whether it was learning the lingo from The Sopranos, appreciating the best insults from Succession, and much more.