(NEXSTAR) – HBO Max’s hottest new drama involves an internal email and an embarrassed intern.
On Thursday night, HBO Max confirmed that one of its interns was responsible for a confusing email that was mistakenly sent to subscribers over an hour earlier.
“We mistakenly sent out an empty test email to a portion of our HBO Max mailing list this evening,” HBO Max confirmed on its HBOMaxHelp Twitter account “We apologize for the inconvenience, and as the jokes pile in, yes, it was the intern. No, really. And we’re helping them through it.”
Subscribers first noticed the email in their inboxes a little before 9 p.m. ET. The subject line read simply “Integration Test Email #1,” and the body contained only one sentence: “This template is used by integration tests only.”
Some of the recipients took to Twitter shortly afterward, expressing confusion or seeking clarification. Most, however, were simply content to joke about the possibility of HBO Max debuting a new “Integration Test” series on its streaming platform.
“Lol if it turns out the HBO Max email goof is a stunt for a new show called Integration Test Email then congrats to the marketing team,” wrote one user.
But among the (many) silly comments, plenty of Twitter users started to share their sympathies with, and even defend, the intern. One developer summed it up by assuring the young worker that “we’ve all been there” at some point in life, and others began sharing their own embarrassing stories.
Some even went as far to claim that the intern did HBO Max a huge favor by sending the email, thus creating a social-media buzz that wouldn’t have otherwise existed.
“Don’t worry HBO intern, we’ve all been there,” one supporter wrote. “Honestly, you should probably get a raise for making this weekend’s hot meme.”