When HBO C.E.O. Richard Plepler and Instagram C.E.O. Kevin Systrom sat down with Vanity Fair’s West Coast Editor Krista Smith at Vanity Fair’s fourth-annual New Establishment Summit in Los Angeles Tuesday, the conversation, inevitably turned to the most talked-about show that has yet to see the light of day: Confederate. When it was announced earlier this summer, the proposed follow-up project from Game of Thrones show-runners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff—an alternative history of the United States where the confederacy won the right to secede from the Union in the 1800s—kicked up loud and immediate backlash from both casual TV watchers and respected cultural scholars. Was this really the show America, currently in the midst of grappling with its own real-life Confederate scandals, needed? Plepler admitted at the Summit that the announcement could have gone more smoothly.

“Where we screwed up,” he admitted, “is we tried to announce a complicated subject in a press release.” After the initial backlash, the themes and concepts of the show were explored in greater detail thanks to a wide-ranging interview Weiss, Benioff, and their Confederate collaborators Malcolm Spellman and Nichelle Tramble Spellman gave Vulture and other outlets. But for many, that interview came too late.

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Plepler’s regrets echo similar comments from HBO programming chief Casey Bloys who told a room full of TV writers at the Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour that the press release announcement of Confederate was “misguided.” He added: “We assumed [Confederate] would be controversial. People didn’t have the benefit of the context of the conversation with the producers that we did. I understand people reading the press release would not have that at all.”

But at the time, Bloys maintained that despite the controversy, HBO was committed to sticking by its talent—especially Weiss and Benioff whose previous bet on a wildly ambitious and, according to many, “unfilmable” fantasy like Game of Thrones turned into the most prized jewel in HBO’s crown. “They can do anything they want, and this is what they feel passionately about,” Bloys said.

In that regard, HBO may feel obliged to hang on to Confederate in order to ensure Weiss and Benioff (who can, truly, do anything they want) don’t take it elsewhere. Plepler told Krista Smith that he is “worrying all the time about what we might be missing” and constantly reflecting on the shows HBO passed on that went on to become massive hits for other platforms (e.g. AMC power players Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead).

In fact, the network recently went to great financial lengths to ensure another outlet, like Netflix, didn’t snap up the star-studded series Big Little Lies. It was an expensive move that paid off for Plepler and HBO in a big way on Emmy night, but the C.E.O. still worries. Brandishing a large folded piece of paper he produced from his pocket, Plepler told Smith he keeps a “What Can Get Fucked Up Today?” list on him at all times. Presumably, earlier in the summer, that Confederate press release should have made the list.