Posted in: HBO, Max, TV | Tagged: HBO, kamala harris, veep
Veep Gets Boost From VP Kamala Harris; Armando Iannucci's Reminder
HBO and Armando Iannucci's Julia Louis-Dreyfus-starring Veep is getting a huge viewing boost on Max thanks to the VP Kamala Harris news.
For some, it's Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing (though Sorkin might still be on a "timeout"). For others, it's Matt Groening's The Simpsons. But in terms of what's been going down in the universe of U.S. Politics over the past 48-72 hours and the best pop culture reference to compare it to, there's only one show that comes to mind – series creator and showrunner Armando Iannucci's Julia Louis-Dreyfus-starring Veep. Unless you've been vacationing under a rock on another planet for over the past week, we're sure you've heard the news that President Joseph Biden has stepped down as the Democrats' top pick to take on the GOP's Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, endorsing Vice-President Kamala Harris to be the one to lead the party into the fall election season. As the support, endorsements, donations, and momentum continue to grow, more than a few folks have noticed some similarities between VP Harris's story and the political adventures of Louis-Dreyfus's VP Selina Meyer (hopefully with a better real-life ending, though). In fact, everything that's gone down has inspired a whole lot of folks to either check out the HBO series for the first time or dive into a rewatch (with Veep available to stream on Max).
According to Luminate, the first season of the comedy series saw a viewership increase of 353% on Monday, July 22nd – the first day after President Biden made his announcement. To put that in terms of minutes viewed? On Sunday, July 21st, the first season had 486,000 minutes of viewership – the following day, that number blew up to 2.2 million minutes viewed. Though the similarities are pretty tough to ignore (in a fun way), Iannucci took to Twitter/X to offer everyone a very important reminder: "Don't forget we made all that up, though." Here's a look at the series creator/showrunner's reactions: