Yellowstone and 4 Other Hit Series (Mistakenly) Rejected by HBO 

Everybody makes mistakes. But sometimes those mistakes cost people a lot of money… Like it happened to HBO, when the guys over there decided the following series weren’t good enough for the major production company.

Although they still have a lot of successful series to name, like The Last of Us, Succession, The Wire, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, and many others, still, owning something like Yellowstone wouldn’t have hurt them, right?

So here are some shows that could have brought HBO a lot of recognition, but instead ended up enriching some other companies.

1. Yellowstone

Picked up by Paramount

Since we started with this iconic western series, let's keep talking about it. Taylor Sheridan 's creation is now one of the most acclaimed Westerns, and Paramount got a lot of credit for that. Actually, Yellowstone was too close to becoming an HBO show, but the differences between Sheridan's vision and the company's executives didn't make the tandem work.

Maybe, it’s for the best, because who knows maybe the saga about the Duttons wouldn’t have turned out the way it did, if it stayed at HBO.

2. Breaking Bad

Picked up by AMC

Another iconic series that was given away blindly is Vince Gilligan's masterpiece Breaking Bad. The thing is, when the creator approached the company with a script for a hardcore crime drama, they were so uninterested that they didn't even consider a worthy response and left him hanging without a proper answer about their intentions.

We don't know if the execs bit their elbows after Breaking Bad ended up winning 16 Emmys, but we think it's possible...

“It's interesting to see which networks turned down a show that ended up being successful, but you always have to keep in mind that at the time, they didn't know it was going to be successful,” Redditor arcadiaware said.

Well, that’s the thing about having the ability to sense such things, which we think all the major companies’ execs should have by default.

3. Yellowjackets

Picked up by Showtime

Showtime is becoming more and more popular these days because of its biggest and best modern hits, but everything could have turned another way, if HBO’s execs thought a bit deeper about the show they were approached with.

The thing is, they declined the script because they felt like the company already has something creepy and teen-centered. It’s hard to believe, but they were talking about Euphoria …

4. Desperate Housewives

Picked up by ABC Studios

Frankly, the show about creepy murderous drama going on in the lives of four+ housewives is not what HBO is typically known for, there was a chance that the company would pick it up. However, they have stuck to their choices and gave away the show.

But when Desperate Housewives ended up ranking number one in America and gained a huge following, we think that HBO execs ended up crying behind closed doors.

5. The Sandman

Picked up by Netflix

Another popular and frankly rather unique series could have gone nowhere if it wasn’t for the streaming giant, Netflix, who decided to save it. The thing is, when Warner Bros. pitched Sandman to their sister company HBO, it didn’t work out the way they thought it would.

For the reason why they mentioned it was just too expensive. Well, you only have one chance to adapt Neil Gaiman 's iconic work…