Why isn't the new Tina Fey show on HBO?

During the week I was listening to HBO chief Casey Bloys on The Town podcast where he said that if HBO wants a project, it pretty much always gets it. Immediately I began thinking about the new Tina Fey cozy comedy The Four Seasons. It is streaming now over at Netflix.

The show is based on an Alan Alda film from 1981 and follows a group of friends who go on a weekend retreat every three months. In the series, we follow their lives across the four seasons. It is right there in the title. The show is a pleasant, light on it’s feet relationship comedy that is filtered through that Tina Fey sensibility (she is a co-creator/co-writer and star of the series).

This is what Bloys had to say:

…if there is something we really, really want, it’s rare that we don’t get it. From the conversations I have, it’s not just about how we develop—although I think our development teams are among the best in the industry—it’s how we make deals. It’s still about how we market. It’s still how we interact with the publicity department.

Now, if somebody is only motivated by getting as much money as they can get—that has absolutely happened. But we still make an incredibly compelling place to do business. We remain a first call, and it’s something we don’t take for granted at all. But again, we’ve been at this for a long time. We’ve had that competition for over a decade now, and have done very, very, very well.

A Tina Fey-starring cozy comedy with a cast including Steve Carell and Colman Domingo just feels like something that would fit in at HBO. They’re not really known for ‘cozy,’ but with that creative and that cast, it still just feels like something that could pop up on HBO.

So, why isn’t it on HBO?