After the tidal wave of critical acclaim and general audience adoration, the second season of True Detective seen a steep drop off in terms of die-hard fans.

Chatting to online outlet The Frame, HBO’s president of programming Michael Lombardo talked about why the second season didn't work out quite so well.

“When we tell somebody to hit an air date as opposed to allowing the writing to find its own natural resting place, when it’s ready when it’s baked - we’ve failed."

“And I think in this particular case, the first season of True Detective was something that Nic Pizzolatto had been thinking about, gestating, for a long period of time."

"He’s a soulful writer. I think what we did was go, ‘Great.’ And I take the blame. I became too much of a network executive at that point. We had huge success. ‘Gee, I’d love to repeat that next year.’”

"We set him [showrunner Nic Pizzolato] up. To deliver, in a very short time frame, something that became very challenging to deliver. That’s not what that show is. He had to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Find his muse. And so I think that’s what I learned from it. Don’t do that anymore.”

“And I’d love to have the enviable certainty of knowing what my next year looks like. I could pencil things in. But I’m not going to start betting on them until the scripts are done."

No word in there regarding the potential for a third season, but considering that the issue was not giving the show's creator Pizzolato enough time to write the second season, we shouldn't expect a follow-up (even if there is going to be one) any time soon.