'Hard Knocks' Fans Threaten to Cancel HBO Max After the Streamer Delayed an Episode

Since 2001, football fans have looked forward to new seasons of HBO's NFL reality series Hard Knocks . The long-running show reached its 19th season in 2024.

During a recent Season 19 episode, loyal viewers of Hard Knocks were shocked to see it wasn't airing on the streaming service HBO Max . Here's what happened.

Why wasn't 'Hard Knocks' on HBO Max during Season 19?

On Tuesday, Aug. 13, Hard Knocks aired the second episode of Season 19. The season focused on the Chicago Bears training camp and preseason. The episodes typically air live on HBO at 8 p.m. CT on Tuesdays, followed by streaming on Max the following day.

However, when the episode ended on HBO, it wasn't available to stream on HBO Max, sparking concern from fans. One of them was Chicago Bears and ESPN reporter Courtney Cronin .

Courtney was one of the first Hard Knocks watchers to post about the missing episode on X (formerly Twitter). She asked her followers if she was the only one with an HBO Max account who didn't see the episode available on their end. Courtney received over 200 replies from other fans who had experienced the same thing, with some jokingly blaming the Bears, stating the team "crashed HBO."

Several minutes after Courtney's tweet circulated, HBO Max Sports's X account, Sports on Max , quickly addressed the issue.

"There is a delay for tonight's episode of #HardKnocks: Training Camp with the @ChicagoBears on Max," the account confirmed. "The episode will be available soon."

An hour after Sports on Max's post, the account followed up with another tweet confirming the episode was available to stream on HBO Max. Unfortunately, for many, the damage was already done, as multiple current account holders threatened to cancel their subscriptions and demanded refunds.