You Can Watch The First Episode Of HBO’s ‘The Leftovers’ On Yahoo

It’s fairly common for premium cable channels to release the first episode of a new show on YouTube. Now, HBO is extending that strategy to Yahoo. The Yahoo Screen platform is home to the first episode of The Leftovers, the new HBO series from Lost writer Damon Lindelof.

The Leftovers centers on a small town three years after a unexplained event caused 2% of the world’s population to disappear. Lindelof, whose post-Lost work has received plenty of criticism, has assembled a strong cast here; the stars of The Leftovers include Justin Theroux, Chistopher Eccleston, and Liv Tyler.

HBO has previously hosted the first episodes of shows like Girls and Silicon Valley

on YouTube (Its main competitor, Showtime, has also utilized a similar tactic.) With this strategy, the channel hopes that a taste of its high-quality programming will encourage viewers to sign up for HBO’s premium service. Yahoo is perhaps more suited to long-form content than YouTube, so HBO’s decision to bring its latest pilot there makes sense.

For Game of Thrones and True Detective viewers looking for off-season sustenance, The Leftovers pilot provides an answer. Go check it out before its too late; these free pilot presentations don’t tend to live on the Internet forever.