Chuck Lorre’s new “Big Bang Theory” spinoff is arriving with episodes shorter than almost anything else on streaming television, and the show’s creators say that was a choice, not a budget problem.
“Stuart Fails to Save the Universe,” premiering July 23 on HBO Max with weekly episodes, follows comic shop owner Stuart Bloom, played by Kevin Sussman, through a sci-fi premise built around alternate realities. Season 1 runs 10 episodes, and their lengths break sharply from typical streaming pacing: one clocks in at 15 minutes, four run 18 minutes, and the rest stretch between 20 and 25 minutes.
Most single-camera streaming comedies land somewhere between 25 and 35 minutes an episode, making Lorre’s approach unusually compact even by broadcast-era standards, where sitcoms were once locked into a 22-minute format to fit network ad breaks.
Lorre, who created the show with original “Big Bang Theory” co-creator Bill Prady and writer Zak Penn, said the runtimes reflect a judgment call about storytelling rather than a production shortfall. Padding a scene just to hit a target length, he said, amounts to a hammock stretched between the moments that matter. Prady added that the structure emerged naturally while breaking the first episode, landing on a rhythm where each installment resolves a crisis only to reveal a new one, functioning as a built-in teaser for the next week’s story.
The series marks Lorre’s third single-camera streaming comedy, following the Golden Globe-winning “The Kominsky Method” for Netflix and “Bookie” for HBO Max, and represents a structural departure for the “Big Bang Theory” franchise. Unlike prequels “Young Sheldon” and “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage,” “Stuart” is set in the present day and follows a supporting character rather than reworking the origin story of Sheldon Cooper.
The cast includes returning franchise regular Wil Wheaton, alongside newcomers Ryan Cartwright, Josh Brener and Tommy Walker. Danny Elfman composed the theme music, and Kyle Newacheck serves as an executive producer and director on multiple episodes. Chuck Lorre Productions produces the series with Warner Bros. Television, where Lorre remains under an overall deal.
