That really stinks!  I'm frankly stunned.  

I guess it's possible Netflix or Amazon might pick it up but I think the cast would probably be too expensive for them since original shows are a new thing on these platforms.  

I'm kind of heartbroken.  

It was developed by HBO and Lionsgate so more difficult for someone else to pick it up. If anyone wants to send of a quick note to HBO about possibly airing the pilot...

http://www.hbo.com/about/contact-us.html

Thanks for the tip SupportSpike! I send my plea to HBO. Let's see if this will increase more changes to see this!  I have HBO Nordic, not sure what programs get there but worth asking, I would really like to see this!

I hate having to be the spoilsport, but the chances of someone else picking it up or the pilot being aired are nil. As SupportSpike has pointed out, HBO actually commissioned the story/pilot. They aren't going to release that baby.  Perhaps the best we can hope for is sometime down the pipeline they revisit it and give it a chance. 

I'm SO disappointed, but really not all that surprised.  Pilot competition is fierce and even with "movie stars" cast, pilots are turned down.  To us, possibly to many in the UK, this was considered an amazing cast ensemble, but the target American audience would have struggled to recognize many of the names.  Salem Witch trials are not a popular period of history, and it seems like contemporary dramas are in vogue right now. And the concept perhaps pushed the boundaries a bit too much.  

*sigh* I REALLY wanted to see this happen! But as Jane said, he was picked to do the pilot for one of the top networks for a story written and directed by THE premier talent at the moment. This was a huge step.  We know it's only a matter of time he'll be making it big.

Yes it is a damn shame HBO commissioned the pilot really, if they then were not going to order it to series. This fact has me bamboozled.

Anyone remember Jenji Kohan's 'Weeds'? Brilliant btw. She pitched that to HBO, who rejected it, but Showtime picked it up. I am less sure on this but think the same thing happened with 'Orange Is The New Black' before Netflix took it on.

It seems all kinds of wrong that TDYK can be tied up with no chance of being picked up elsewhere, ever? IT IS JENJI KOHAN FFS!!!!!!

Also,  I realise that the picking up of things is the more reported on, but considering the huge press coverage this project had initially, it seems baffling that there is total silence on this news!

Hi Kate,

The TDYK pilot has sadly not been released in any form, which is nothing short of tragic! We're all crossing fingers it somehow re-emerges at some point in the future.

Damn... this show not getting picked up is one of the biggest tragedies in TV history.

Not sure why I am torturing myself with this so far on after the event, but this, from an AV Club interview with James Marsden, has refuelled the frustration that this gem has been buried forever.

AVC: Well, you might not have made into the world of Harry Potter, but on the magic side of things, you’ve narrated all of the audio books for theDresden Files novels and you had a recurring role on Witches Of East End. In the what-might’ve-been column, though, there’s the pilot for HBO’s The Devil You Know. Looking at the people involved, it seems inexplicable that they opted not to pick up.

JM: Oh, my God, yeah. Jenji Kohan created it, with Gus Van Sant directing. We were sure we were going to get picked up! [Laughs.]

As soon as the dailies came in to HBO, they couldn’t say enough. “These are the best dailies we’ve ever seen!” Everybody was so excited about it. And I think… [Hesitates.] I don’t know why it wasn’t picked up, but I do know that if it would’ve been picked up, it would’ve been very controversial, even for HBO. There was a lot of sexual content, but I think that HBO is used to sexual content that’s kind of exciting or titillating. And this was Gus Van Sant, and he cuts a little deeper than that. And the sexual content on this project was unsettling. It all made a point. There was a purpose to it all. But it’d make you squirm. And it’s possible that to read a script is one thing, but to watch people do it makes it more intense, and I think maybe HBO just said, “Ah, I don’t know. This may be too much even for us.”

It was the most fun I’ve ever had in my life while being hypothermic. [Laughs.] Because we did it in Massachusetts in the wintertime, and it was brutally cold. We were freezing! I went to Jenji one time when she was in a tent, watching on a monitor, and I poked my head and I just said, “Jenji, thank you for this experience.” And she looked at me funny, and I would love to see her again and explain to her that I wasn’t being sarcastic! Because we were all dying in the cold, and I think she thought I was saying [Snarls.] “Thanks a lot, Jenji!” But it was an honest statement: I was happy to be there.

AVC: Beyond your theory about the sexual content, do you think HBO’s failure to pick up the series could’ve had anything to do with Salem, which trod similar ground, having premiered on WGN in the interim?

JM: I don’t know, man. I’m not in those rooms. [Laughs.] But I can tell you that it would’ve been so different from that project. Like, we didn’t wear any makeup. There was no makeup on The Devil You Know. I think Salem is kind of very glamorous, and ours was absolutely the other way: hyper-realistic, but with amazing lighting so it looked like a painting. It was very different.

I too cannot believe this did not get picked up.  I'm still a but crushed about it.