Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall

HBO renews 'Game of Thrones'

Fantasy series opens to good, not great ratings, but gets second season

By Alan Sepinwall Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011 11:14 AM

Lena Headey in "Game of Thrones."

Credit: HBO

The last time HBO debuted a new drama series with "Boardwalk Empire," it renewed it two days after the premiere, day the initial ratings came in. HBO has now stuck to that pattern with "Game of Thrones," announcing a second season this morning, not long after final numbers for Sunday night's premiere (which I reviewed here) became available.

The key difference is that, where "Boardwalk" opened with the kind of strong ratings that made renewal a formality, "Thrones" had a good-but-not-great opening audience.

Back in the fall, "Boardwalk" premiered to nearly 5 million viewers in its initial timeslot, and 7.1 million viewers combined for all its airings on opening night. "Thrones," meanwhile, averaged about 2.2 million viewers for its first airing, and a combined 4.2 million viewers for the night. (The HBO press release notably focused on the larger "gross audience" number.)

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The early spin I've seen is that "Boardwalk" was promoted all summer during HBO's biggest hit, "True Blood," where "Game of Thrones" was immediately preceded by the low-rated "Mildred Pierce," and before that by the limping final season of "Big Love." And also that "True Blood" started even smaller, with 1.4 million viewers, before growing into the channel's biggest hit, and that perhaps "Thrones" can similarly grow.

Regardless, 2.2 million isn't a bad number for a new HBO series, particularly one in a genre so far outside the channel's comfort zone. And given the huge expense of the first season - an expense that only makes financial sense if HBO can amortize it over multiple years of the show - I imagine any number that wasn't completely disastrous would have led to a second season.

"Game of Thrones" didn't flop, and now Benioff, Weiss and company will get to tell at least two books' worth of stories about it. But I imagine everyone involved would like to see that number rise before a third season starts being seriously discussed.

UPDATE: I was reminded on Twitter that HBO also renewed "Treme" the Tuesday after its premiere, which was modestly-rated. The Tuesday renewal thing seems to be the way HBO wants to do business right now. I am not objecting.

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

Related Searches: Game of Thrones, Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, George R.R. Martin, David Benioff, Dan Weiss, Lena Headey, Mark Addy, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Michelle Fairley, Kit Harrington

Andrew

Great, great news. Seems like HBO really is trying to reclaim its dominance over cable drama, don't you think?
April 19, 2011 at 11:34AM EST Reply to Comment
- cowboy dan AMC's Hell on Wheels will prevent it from doing so. Word on the street is that it makes Deadwood look like The Wild Wild West.
  April 19, 2011 at 11:41AM EST
- lieutenant dan (generalization) Nobody stuck with Deadwood because it looked great. Maybe people with a fetish for grimy c-ck!@#$@$. All I'm saying is people who watched Deadwood mainly for its look are frankly not worthy as pig food (as tv watchers)
  April 19, 2011 at 12:00PM EST
- When is Hell on Wheels set to premiere?
  April 19, 2011 at 12:42PM EST
- mattsandiego Fall 2011, alongside The Walking Dead (maybe slightly before or after it, because it will consist of 10 episodes unlike TWD's 13).
  April 19, 2011 at 12:45PM EST
- joel So the show that no one has seen and was just ordered to series in December is going to be better than Deadwood? I love when people just buy into network marketing hype.
  
  We'll have to wait and see, but considering the creative talent helming this I'm just a tad skeptical.
  April 19, 2011 at 7:21PM EST
tag8833

I'm really glad the numbers came out decent, but I'm worried that this is a show that will have a hard time adding viewers, and that the expense of it is likely to create a Rome / Deadwood situation.

Do we know exactly how epensive it is compared to True Blood or Boardwalk Empire?
April 19, 2011 at 11:40AM EST Reply to Comment
- Omagus I actually think the Rome and Deadwood situations work in GoT's favor. At the time those shows were cancelled, HBO had not yet properly figured out how to cash in with DVDs. The network has since then publicly said that if it had a do-over, it would opt to keep those series on the air. I see GoT as that do-over.
  April 19, 2011 at 11:53AM EST
- Ben OMAGUS, do you have links to HBO's comments on Deadwood and Rome?
  April 19, 2011 at 1:37PM EST
- rhys1882 Yeah, the problem with Rome was that because of the massive sets they had to maintain in Italy, they had to decide whether to green light a season 3 before season 2 aired. Rome actually became very popular after season 1 came out on DVD and a lot of people tuned in to Season 2. Unfortunately, the sets had already been struck and they couldn't undue the cancellation.
  
  From what I've read Boardwalk Empire cost $30 to $40 million for the first season and Game of Thrones cost $40 to $50 million for its first season. However, it is important to note that if a show brings new subscribers to HBO, that is more important than ratings.
  
  I doubt True Blood costs anywhere near what Boardwalk Empire and GoT cost because it is set in contemporary times.
  April 19, 2011 at 7:21PM EST
- tag8833 I expected Game of Thrones to cost 2 or 3 times the cost of Boardwalk Empire. Glad to see I'm wrong. I guess smaller sets in New York are more expensive than bigger sets in Belfast and Morocco.
  
  Are we not concerned that the Rome scenario will repeat with GOT? Requiring a season 3 renewal or tearing down the sets before season 2 airs.
  April 20, 2011 at 10:23AM EST
cyloncaprica

Poor Kit Harington. All the good work he does and you continue to write his name wrong ;)
April 19, 2011 at 11:42AM EST Reply to Comment
ChampSkins

This is terrific. Part of me feels like HBO does the quick renewal to make sure the audience stays around and maybe give people who are hesitant to like a show that doesn't get renewed and chose not to watch the first episode a chance to be able to catch up easily and start watching. Thoughts on that, Alan?

Seems like a pretty smart move by HBO and something that definitely didn't hurt Boardwalk or Treme. Or really for that matter, The Walking Dead on AMC that got a really quick renewal.
April 19, 2011 at 11:49AM EST Reply to Comment
- cooking with rhubarb But The Walking Dead got almost three times Game of Thrones' audience...
  April 19, 2011 at 11:55AM EST
- According to Nielsen, AMC is in nearly 97 million households. HBO's subscriber base is less than 30 million.
  April 19, 2011 at 12:51PM EST
- cooking with rhubarb So? AMC has been airing original dramatic series for less than 4 years; HBO had Oz and The Sopranos receiving rave reviewers way back in the last millenium.
  
  The majority of those 97 million households aren't even aware that AMC is part of their basic cable package, whereas those who subscribe to HBO are doing so with the explicit intent of watching their shows.
  April 19, 2011 at 1:04PM EST
- Omagus @Cooking With Rhubarb
  But you can't ignore that reality. The Walking Dead could be viewed by almost anyone with a basic cable package. People would have to specifically subscribe to HBO in order to see Game of Thrones.
  
  I also think source material for the two shows probably works in TWD's favor. It's easier to casually get into serialized graphic novels than it is 800 page tomes.
  April 19, 2011 at 1:19PM EST
- @Omagus, I don't think that's necessarily true about it being easier to get into TWD than GoT because of length. The walking dead has been around for a decade and is up to 83 issues-that's a ton. I think it's more people like zzombies than political machinations in a alternate fantasy world.
  April 19, 2011 at 3:31PM EST
Given HBO's past transgressions with Rome and Deadwood they're smart to renew a series like this early and loudly. If they renew, it'll get filmed and it'll get played. That sends a nice loud message to fans that might be hesitant to get invested in a show like this that HBO is behind it for at least 20 (?) episodes. Now all they need to do is get production underway ASAP before the kid actors out age their characters :)
April 19, 2011 at 11:52AM EST Reply to Comment
jen

It's also worth pointing out that due to HBO's model, unlike many other networks, they truly aren't just looking at ratings numbers but also subscribers.

They don't need advertisers to be satisfied that someone watched an episode live. I'm willing to bet that, even more than Boardwalk and Treme, a ton of people signed up to get HBO just for this show because it has the kind of fanbase that will follow it like that. I've heard HBO say in the past that this is what they look for: a slate of diverse shows so that each one is pulling a different demographic in, and thus more total subscribers.
April 19, 2011 at 12:05PM EST Reply to Comment
- Joseph It would be interesting to see the number of new subscribers. I added HBO last month for Game of Thrones, and I'm sure many other fans of the books did the same.
  April 19, 2011 at 12:26PM EST
- Chrissy I didn't add for GoT only, but it was probably the biggest factor influencing the decision. HBO can do appointment TV like no one else if they want to. I always think of Paul Rudd in I Love You Man singing the praises of Sunday night HBO. Renewing early is great, because with the rise of good cable shows has come a rise in cancellations (Rubicon, Terriers, etc.) and people are probably anxious about getting attached to something that won't last.
  April 19, 2011 at 2:05PM EST
Bill

This has nothing to do with this post in particular, but thanks for the work you do. For the last couple of years my rule of thumb has been "If Sepinwall likes it, I'll give it a try."
April 19, 2011 at 12:06PM EST Reply to Comment
- jv Thats my rule too!
  April 19, 2011 at 12:19PM EST
- dan me three
  April 19, 2011 at 2:34PM EST
- hipo Cosign!
  April 20, 2011 at 6:58PM EST
gregel

Millions in marketing. Should have done bigger numbers.
April 19, 2011 at 12:20PM EST Reply to Comment
- Omagus Why? Because of the devoted fans of the source material, this show is likely to keep a larger chunk of its audience than a typical new show, especially now that they know they get it for at least two seasons. Plus HBO stands to make millions via DVD and iTunes sales.
  April 19, 2011 at 1:38PM EST
MrVickiVale

The book series is A Song of Fire and Ice, and the first book is titled Game of Thrones, correct? So if season 2 covers the second book, will it still be called Game of Thrones, or will it be titled after the second book?
April 19, 2011 at 12:21PM EST Reply to Comment
- To be precise, the series is "A Song of Ice and Fire", while the first book is "A Game of Thrones". The TV show is shortened to "Game of Thrones". It's unknown how they will address titling for future seasons, but I expect the main title will remain "Game of Thrones" for marketing purposes.
  April 19, 2011 at 12:44PM EST
- vohdre They will be keeping the same title for the series "Game of Thrones".
  April 19, 2011 at 12:51PM EST
cyloncaprica

A little of topic, but how satisfied is Starz with Camelot's ratings? And SHOWTIME's with Borgia's I read some figures a couple of weeks -which I can't believe - that says Camelot is even more expensive per episode than Game Of Thrones. Doesn't show.
April 19, 2011 at 12:39PM EST Reply to Comment
- game of boobs It costs Starz more to get Eva Green to show the goods than it does for HBO with Emilia Clarke, but that's the only category in which Camelot outspends GoT.
  April 19, 2011 at 12:49PM EST
Mike

I remember reading somewhere that it was a (kinda-sorta) 'secret' policy of HBO to order two-season pickups for most of their new shows, explaining why they can afford to renew so early after premiere.

Anyone know if this is actually true at all or just post-hoc rationalizing gossip?
April 19, 2011 at 12:48PM EST Reply to Comment
Original Ray

I watched the beginning of the pilot episode, and here's my question: When does the sex start? Because so far . . . the show's stupid.
April 19, 2011 at 12:51PM EST Reply to Comment
- Tedd I admire your patience, Original Ray.
  April 19, 2011 at 3:24PM EST
revlon

I honestly believe that tweezing your eyebrows produces one of the most wondrous feelings in the world.
April 19, 2011 at 12:58PM EST Reply to Comment
Andy

My only qualm is, and it's from someone not even having touched the books (and also being a negative nancy)...

How much of a worry is it with a series like this KNOWING that there are in theory seven books in total (not all yet completed) means that there is seven series of action available to be told.

So what if Game of Thrones simply ends up only popular enough for three seasons on HBO and then production stops there?

From those that may have read the books [don't spoil but] would it be tragic from a storytelling point of view were the tv series to end it's run before it's time -not necessarily after 3 series, but just in general- and part of the way through the book series? Is the compendium of stories as a whole needed or does each story provide enough of it's own were this to happen?

I'm with this through to whatever end from what I've seen so far, I'm just intrigued by the thought.
April 19, 2011 at 1:06PM EST Reply to Comment
- happy-go-lucky wizard Who cares? As with The Walking Dead, there will be inevitable departures from the source material. Just think about it as a different way of telling a similar kind of story. Whether or not they make it to your favorite part of the story is irrelevant, since it will always be at least a bit different from what happens in the book. (I for one had always imagined Dany with smaller breasts, but they got an adult woman to play her, so they were obviously bigger on the show.)
  April 19, 2011 at 1:10PM EST
- RickMarshall Regardless of where the TV show ends, why wouldn't you just read the books to find out how the story plays out?
  April 19, 2011 at 1:16PM EST
- tag8833 1) I'm not convinced that it will only be 7 books. That is the current theory, but the original theory was 3, then 5, then 7, so it could easily expand again.
  2) GRRM has said that he would like 1 season for book 1, 1 season for book 2, 2 seasons for book 3, and 3 seasons for the combined events of books 4 and 5. That comes out to 7 seasons for what is currently written. At least 2 more for books 6 and 7. This show won't last 9 seasons, so...
  3) I expect them to set an end date at some point and make up their own ending. With luck they will have a full year notice to wrap up the story lines to something respectable.
  April 19, 2011 at 1:23PM EST
- Chrissy I think it's a good question. If the show diverges completely from the books, then it might not matter, but from what I hear they are hitting many of the plot points and character aspects that the books do, and each season is meant to cover one book, right? If they had stopped making Lord of the Rings movies after the second one, it would have felt very unfinished. I don't know how much this series is meant to tell one story - is it more LotR (one long story) or Discworld (many disconnected stories from the same universe)? I assume the former.
  
  That said, they could always come up with their own ending. I wonder what the Harry Potter movies would have done if they had somehow not been wildly popular or if they hadn't been able to keep the cast.
  April 19, 2011 at 2:10PM EST
- JREinATL I think that everyone needs to get comfortable with the fact that given the number of factors against it (marginalized genre, expensive, 7 seasons worth of story to adapt and only 5 of which the creator has written), it's highly, highly unlikely that this series gets a satisfying ending.
  April 19, 2011 at 2:24PM EST
- @happygolucky, it will not be the same thing as the walking dead. They won't be adding random plotlines and slowing down the story. They might ad scenes to expand the story and the might cut some but it will be pretty faithful to the books
  April 19, 2011 at 3:40PM EST
happy-go-lucky wizard

For true fans only:

http://cdn03.cdn.egotastic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/emilia-clarke-nude-game-of-thrones-cap-03.jpg

April 19, 2011 at 1:14PM EST Reply to Comment
Tedd

Unfortunately, I agree with some people here that we're highly unlikely to get to the end of GrrM's story, and so the series probably won't end on an entirely satisfying note. Of course, Deadwood didn't either, and that's still regarded as a pantheon-level HBO show.

Without spoiling anything, we need the series to go at least four seasons. The ending of the third book could--theoretically--probably serve as an adequate ending, tweaked a little. But they're going to need to split the third book up into two seasons, most likely.
April 19, 2011 at 3:44PM EST Reply to Comment
- James Agreed, totally.
  April 19, 2011 at 4:10PM EST
- EssPee Hell, it's far from clear we're ever going to see the end of GRRM's story in book form, either :-).
  April 20, 2011 at 11:24AM EST
John W

Great news as far as I'm concerned. Given HBO's track record I don't think Game of Thrones will disappoint.
April 19, 2011 at 4:59PM EST Reply to Comment
Fran

Does that 4.2 million number include those who watched it free through their cable company, or just the subscribers who watched it?
April 19, 2011 at 7:36PM EST Reply to Comment
- AT Nope only paying subscribers apparently
  April 19, 2011 at 9:39PM EST
- Fran Thanks, AT.
  April 19, 2011 at 11:41PM EST
Rodolfo

Even more people would have watched if certain TV critics had DONE THEIR JOB and explained to their readers why sword and sorcery epics are so awesome instead of trying to be cool (yeah, right) and diss the show like it's lame when EVERYONE KNOWS ITS AWESOME. That's what Alan said, anyway, and I agree with him.
April 19, 2011 at 9:44PM EST Reply to Comment
Glitterous

I've heard a lot of buzz about the show around my college campus. Considering most of the people there can barely afford to pay the water bill so that they can make their Ramen and the dorms don't have HBO, I'm guessing they used less-than-savory means to watch the show. While that doesn't generate revenue for HBO, I would say the audience was significantly higher for the show than the numbers indicated. And who knows, maybe these people will become subscribers when they are productive members of society with paychecks to do so.
April 20, 2011 at 12:27AM EST Reply to Comment
Mitch

As long as we're comparing the premiere audiences for Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones, isn't the fact that Steve Buscemi is a bigger star than anyone in GoT relevant? Buscemi was even on the network's previous "organized crime in NJ" show The Sopranos!
April 20, 2011 at 1:22AM EST Reply to Comment
A-LEX

You don't jump into this pool unless you're planning to stay a while. I wouldn't say the pilot's ratings are meaningless, but I would say they are far less important than for a show like Boardwalk Empire.
April 20, 2011 at 7:13AM EST Reply to Comment
I wonder if HBO also takes into account, new subscribers to their service, as I picked up HBO on Sunday for this and will drop it again as soon as the run is over, or at least till east bound and down plus Bored to Death start up again...
April 20, 2011 at 7:34PM EST Reply to Comment

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Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall

HBO renews 'Game of Thrones'

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Option 3

Andrew Great, great news. Seems like HBO really is trying to reclaim its dominance over cable drama, don't you think?

cowboy dan AMC's Hell on Wheels will prevent it from doing so. Word on the street is that it makes Deadwood look like The Wild Wild West.

lieutenant dan (generalization) Nobody stuck with Deadwood because it looked great. Maybe people with a fetish for grimy c-ck!@#$@$. All I'm saying is people who watched Deadwood mainly for its look are frankly not worthy as pig food (as tv watchers)

When is Hell on Wheels set to premiere?

mattsandiego Fall 2011, alongside The Walking Dead (maybe slightly before or after it, because it will consist of 10 episodes unlike TWD's 13).

joel So the show that no one has seen and was just ordered to series in December is going to be better than Deadwood? I love when people just buy into network marketing hype.We'll have to wait and see, but considering the creative talent helming this I'm just a tad skeptical.

tag8833 I'm really glad the numbers came out decent, but I'm worried that this is a show that will have a hard time adding viewers, and that the expense of it is likely to create a Rome / Deadwood situation. Do we know exactly how epensive it is compared to True Blood or Boardwalk Empire?

Ben OMAGUS, do you have links to HBO's comments on Deadwood and Rome?

cyloncaprica Poor Kit Harington. All the good work he does and you continue to write his name wrong ;)

cooking with rhubarb But The Walking Dead got almost three times Game of Thrones' audience...

According to Nielsen, AMC is in nearly 97 million households. HBO's subscriber base is less than 30 million.

@Omagus, I don't think that's necessarily true about it being easier to get into TWD than GoT because of length. The walking dead has been around for a decade and is up to 83 issues-that's a ton. I think it's more people like zzombies than political machinations in a alternate fantasy world.

Joseph It would be interesting to see the number of new subscribers. I added HBO last month for Game of Thrones, and I'm sure many other fans of the books did the same.

Bill This has nothing to do with this post in particular, but thanks for the work you do. For the last couple of years my rule of thumb has been "If Sepinwall likes it, I'll give it a try."

jv Thats my rule too!

dan me three

hipo Cosign!

gregel Millions in marketing. Should have done bigger numbers.

Omagus Why? Because of the devoted fans of the source material, this show is likely to keep a larger chunk of its audience than a typical new show, especially now that they know they get it for at least two seasons. Plus HBO stands to make millions via DVD and iTunes sales.

MrVickiVale The book series is A Song of Fire and Ice, and the first book is titled Game of Thrones, correct? So if season 2 covers the second book, will it still be called Game of Thrones, or will it be titled after the second book?

To be precise, the series is "A Song of Ice and Fire", while the first book is "A Game of Thrones". The TV show is shortened to "Game of Thrones". It's unknown how they will address titling for future seasons, but I expect the main title will remain "Game of Thrones" for marketing purposes.

vohdre They will be keeping the same title for the series "Game of Thrones".

cyloncaprica A little of topic, but how satisfied is Starz with Camelot's ratings? And SHOWTIME's with Borgia's I read some figures a couple of weeks -which I can't believe - that says Camelot is even more expensive per episode than Game Of Thrones. Doesn't show.

game of boobs It costs Starz more to get Eva Green to show the goods than it does for HBO with Emilia Clarke, but that's the only category in which Camelot outspends GoT.

Mike I remember reading somewhere that it was a (kinda-sorta) 'secret' policy of HBO to order two-season pickups for most of their new shows, explaining why they can afford to renew so early after premiere.Anyone know if this is actually true at all or just post-hoc rationalizing gossip?

Original Ray I watched the beginning of the pilot episode, and here's my question: When does the sex start? Because so far . . . the show's stupid.

Tedd I admire your patience, Original Ray.

revlon I honestly believe that tweezing your eyebrows produces one of the most wondrous feelings in the world.

RickMarshall Regardless of where the TV show ends, why wouldn't you just read the books to find out how the story plays out?

JREinATL I think that everyone needs to get comfortable with the fact that given the number of factors against it (marginalized genre, expensive, 7 seasons worth of story to adapt and only 5 of which the creator has written), it's highly, highly unlikely that this series gets a satisfying ending.

@happygolucky, it will not be the same thing as the walking dead. They won't be adding random plotlines and slowing down the story. They might ad scenes to expand the story and the might cut some but it will be pretty faithful to the books

happy-go-lucky wizard For true fans only: http://cdn03.cdn.egotastic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/emilia-clarke-nude-game-of-thrones-cap-03.jpg

James Agreed, totally.

EssPee Hell, it's far from clear we're ever going to see the end of GRRM's story in book form, either :-).

John W Great news as far as I'm concerned. Given HBO's track record I don't think Game of Thrones will disappoint.

Fran Does that 4.2 million number include those who watched it free through their cable company, or just the subscribers who watched it?

AT Nope only paying subscribers apparently

Fran Thanks, AT.

Mitch As long as we're comparing the premiere audiences for Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones, isn't the fact that Steve Buscemi is a bigger star than anyone in GoT relevant? Buscemi was even on the network's previous "organized crime in NJ" show The Sopranos!

A-LEX You don't jump into this pool unless you're planning to stay a while. I wouldn't say the pilot's ratings are meaningless, but I would say they are far less important than for a show like Boardwalk Empire.

I wonder if HBO also takes into account, new subscribers to their service, as I picked up HBO on Sunday for this and will drop it again as soon as the run is over, or at least till east bound and down plus Bored to Death start up again...

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Andrew

Great, great news. Seems like HBO really is trying to reclaim its dominance over cable drama, don't you think?

joel So the show that no one has seen and was just ordered to series in December is going to be better than Deadwood? I love when people just buy into network marketing hype.

We'll have to wait and see, but considering the creative talent helming this I'm just a tad skeptical.

tag8833

I'm really glad the numbers came out decent, but I'm worried that this is a show that will have a hard time adding viewers, and that the expense of it is likely to create a Rome / Deadwood situation.

Do we know exactly how epensive it is compared to True Blood or Boardwalk Empire?

cyloncaprica

Poor Kit Harington. All the good work he does and you continue to write his name wrong ;)

Bill

This has nothing to do with this post in particular, but thanks for the work you do. For the last couple of years my rule of thumb has been "If Sepinwall likes it, I'll give it a try."

gregel

Millions in marketing. Should have done bigger numbers.

MrVickiVale

The book series is A Song of Fire and Ice, and the first book is titled Game of Thrones, correct? So if season 2 covers the second book, will it still be called Game of Thrones, or will it be titled after the second book?

cyloncaprica

A little of topic, but how satisfied is Starz with Camelot's ratings? And SHOWTIME's with Borgia's I read some figures a couple of weeks -which I can't believe - that says Camelot is even more expensive per episode than Game Of Thrones. Doesn't show.

Mike

I remember reading somewhere that it was a (kinda-sorta) 'secret' policy of HBO to order two-season pickups for most of their new shows, explaining why they can afford to renew so early after premiere.

Anyone know if this is actually true at all or just post-hoc rationalizing gossip?

Original Ray

I watched the beginning of the pilot episode, and here's my question: When does the sex start? Because so far . . . the show's stupid.

revlon

I honestly believe that tweezing your eyebrows produces one of the most wondrous feelings in the world.

happy-go-lucky wizard

For true fans only:

http://cdn03.cdn.egotastic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/emilia-clarke-nude-game-of-thrones-cap-03.jpg

John W

Great news as far as I'm concerned. Given HBO's track record I don't think Game of Thrones will disappoint.

Fran

Does that 4.2 million number include those who watched it free through their cable company, or just the subscribers who watched it?

Mitch

As long as we're comparing the premiere audiences for Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones, isn't the fact that Steve Buscemi is a bigger star than anyone in GoT relevant? Buscemi was even on the network's previous "organized crime in NJ" show The Sopranos!

A-LEX

You don't jump into this pool unless you're planning to stay a while. I wouldn't say the pilot's ratings are meaningless, but I would say they are far less important than for a show like Boardwalk Empire.

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