Phil McCarten/Invision for the Television Academy/AP ImagesIf you weren't watching the 2015 Emmy Awards last night, you probably missed one of the biggest surprises in the show's history: Andy Samberg giving out his HBO Now login.
Yes, the host actually released a working login and password for the streaming platform, giving millions and millions of viewers a free subscription.
"Speaking of, HBO has the most nominations tonight and I just realized that a lot of you watching it at home right now might not have an HBO subscription, but lucky for you, the CEO of HBO recently said he doesn't think password sharing for their streaming services is a problem," Samberg said. "So, here's my HBO Now login. The user name is khaleesifan3@emmyhost.com, and the password is, of course, password1."
While the account did work for a period of time, it quickly ran into login limitations and is no longer active—a point that, despite popular belief, proves the gag was not paid for by HBO.
There was quite a bit of Twitter chatter that the moment was some kind of paid product placement to get people to try HBO Now and later end up paying for it, but a source tells E! News it was not. HBO was given a heads up, but no specific details on what was happening. Thus, it was not a paid ad.
Not to mention, if the gag was paid for, the login probably wouldn't have stopped working so soon.
Samberg's joke was playing off HBO CEO Richard Plepler's recent interview with Buzzfeed about how the company really doesn't care if people share their login information with each other.
"It's not that we're unmindful of it, it just has no impact on the business," Plepler said. Rather, he believes it's a "terrific marketing vehicle for the next generation of viewers" and thinks it could lead to more subscribers in the future.
We can't help but wonder if Samberg's gag ended up doing just that...