In every home across America, families aren’t tuning into your run-of-the-mill sitcom or crime procedural. With premium TV services like HBO, homes across America have a rich well of original content from which to draw. So who is searching for what HBO original shows?
To learn more about the most popular HBO original series people are searching for in their home state, we teamed up with CableTV.com to analyze data from Google Trends for 2016. In the process, we wondered if searches were influenced by environment.
What we found was especially surprising
- In 2016, Colorado, Washington, and Massachusetts searched the most for the cowboy robot adventure Westworld. At first blush that seems surprising, but perhaps less so when you consider that Colorado, Washington and Massachusetts are five of the top tech states.
- Twelve states seem especially concerned about marriage and more specifically, Divorce. That show is performing well in Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
- States that are worried about the prison system and dedicate their TV-watching hours to Oz were Arkansas, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Some things never change
- People in the South are devoted to Treme and True Blood—two shows which celebrate the unique culture of the region as well as its many intricate legends and myths.
- While folks in Alaska relate to the white tundra of Jon Snow’s Night’s Watch in Game of Thrones, city slickers in California are dedicated to Silicon Valley and all of its hilarious delights.
- Of course, folks in Louisiana, New Jersey, and Maryland are faithful to state-themed favorites like Treme, The Sopranos, and The Wire, respectively.
- Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming seem to have religious polyamory on the brain, as all three are obsessed with Big Love.
- New Yorkers can be counted on to have seen every single episode of Sex and the City. And people in Florida are true to their Miami roots when it comes to Dwayne Johnson’s Ballers.
- Viewers living in our nation’s capital of Washington D.C. can’t get enough of Veep—a show that sheds humor on the often stressful nature of politics and division.
You can’t win ‘em all
- While South Dakota stays dedicated to its own historical epic Deadwood, that show proves to be the 2nd least favorite HBO program in America, pairing up with Treme as a least popular TV show.
- And don’t ask Alabama what they think about Flight of the Conchords because they’re the only state which absolutely hates the show. Apparently, that New Zealand humor doesn’t fly in the Yellowhammer state.
Have a hunch about where your state falls on the show-watching spectrum? Check out our map below and see if your suspicions are confirmed.
Alabama | Family Tree |
Alaska | Game of Thrones |
Arizona | Divorce |
Arkansas | Oz |
California | Silicon Valley |
Colorado | Westworld |
Connecticut | Togetherness |
Delaware | Boardwalk Empire |
DC | Veep |
Florida | Ballers |
Georgia | Divorce |
Hawaii | Divorce |
Idaho | Big Love |
Illinois | Carnivàle |
Indiana | The Night Of |
Iowa | Family Tree |
Kansas | Oz |
Kentucky | True Blood |
Louisiana | Treme |
Maine | Oz |
Maryland | The Wire |
Massachusetts | Westworld |
Michigan | Divorce |
Minnesota | Family Tree |
Mississippi | Divorce |
Missouri | Oz |
Montana | Divorce |
Nebraska | Divorce |
Nevada | The Wire |
New Hampshire | Game of Thrones |
New Jersey | The Sopranos |
New Mexico | Bored to Death |
New York | Sex and the City |
North Carolina | Eastbound & Down |
North Dakota | Oz |
Ohio | Divorce |
Oklahoma | Divorce |
Oregon | Sex and the City |
Pennsylvania | Oz |
Rhode Island | The Leftovers |
South Carolina | Eastbound & Down |
South Dakota | Deadwood |
Tennessee | Divorce |
Texas | Divorce |
Utah | Big Love |
Vermont | Girls |
Virginia | Divorce |
Washington | Westworld |
West Virginia | Oz |
Wisconsin | Oz |
Wyoming | Big Love |
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