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UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers 
Like it did with Boardwalk Empire in September, HBO just renewed Game of Thrones moments after the ratings for the premiere episode were in. For Game of Thrones, those ratings were solid, not great. But, also like with Boardwalk Empire, HBO invested in elaborate sets and designs in re-creating the world from George R.R. Martin’s books, so a second season was considered a sure thing. And while HBO brass pay attention to ratings, the numbers have never been the deciding factor in the network’s renewal decisions as proven by the pickups of shows like Treme, Bored to Death and In Treatment. “We are delighted by the way David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have brought George R.R. Martin’s amazing book series to the screen, and thrilled by the support of the media and our viewers,” HBO’s head of programming Michael Lombardo said.
In its heavily promoted premiere Sunday night, HBO’s new fantasy series landed between True Blood and Boardwalk Empire ratings-wise. For its debut 9 PM airing, Game of Thrones drew 2.2 million viewers, down 54% from the September premiere of Boardwalk Empire but up 57% from the 1.4 million who tuned in for the debut of True Blood three years ago. Game of Thrones is closer to True Blood in several aspects: it also is a genre series and, like True Blood, it didn’t have a strong promotional platform on HBO. The trailers for Game of Thrones ran mainly during the miniseries Mildred Pierce, which was more female-skewing and was seen by under 1 million viewers for each original episode. For comparison, Boardwalk Empire was promoted during True Blood, which averaged 6 million-7 million viewers every Sunday. Encouragingly, in its second airing Sunday, Game of Thrones drew 1.2 million viewers, 60% of its premiere audience. Boardwalk Empire‘s audience for the second outing was 1.4 million, or 29%. HBO’s research folk registered a major influx of young males for the 10 PM airing. The highly watched NBA playoff games are considered a culprit for the depressed levels at 9 PM and the spiked viewership for the rerun. Overall, the premiere of Game of Thrones averaged 4.2 million viewers on Sunday for the three airings vs. 7.1 million for Boardwalk Empire in September. Additionally, the Game of Thrones premiere launched with an average of 743,000 on Sky Atlantic, breaking a ratings record for the the British satellite channel.
The Season 1 cast includes (in alphabetical order): Mark Addy, Alfie Allen, Sean Bean, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Fairley, Aidan Gillen, Jack Gleeson, Iain Glen, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Harry Lloyd, Richard Madden, Rory McCann, Jason Momoa, Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams. Game of Thrones is executive produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss; co-executive producers, Carolyn Strauss, Guymon Casady, Vince Gerardis, Ralph Vicinanza and George R.R. Martin; producers, Mark Huffam and Frank Doelger.
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That’s great news! Loved the pilot.
Nikki:
It would be nice to give a “kudo” to the Director of that premiere episode Tim Van Patten. He did a great job!!!! Kudos to you Tim….you’ve come along way since “The Visitor”!!
Tim Van Patten did not direct the pilot or The Visitor… I think you mean Tom Mccarthy
Yes, Tim Van Patten directed the pilot of “Game of Thrones” and his episodes of “The Sopranos” were always the best. Fact!
“The Visitor” was a TV series from 1997 that apparently only this guy remembers — I had to look it up on imdb but I fell asleep before I could finish the cast list. Van Patten directed one episode.
You = served is what you got.
This has been a meter of truth.
Truth O Meter…I was Tim’s 1st Assistant Director on his one episode of “The Visitor”….he’s a great guy.
Tom McCarthy directed “The Visitor”, but he did NOT end up directing the pilot. They brought on one of HBO’s regular series directors after they were apparently unhappy with McCarthy’s original cut. Hence the numerous delays, recastings, and reshoots. Although, being a huge fan of McCarthy’s, I hope his version of the pilot is leaked somehow!
O RLY? http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0887700/
Tim Van Patten directed the premiere of Game of Thrones that aired on Sunday. Tom McCarthy directed the first pilot, which was scrapped and reshot by Van Patten.
Am I missing something? The wife and I watched the pilot last night and were BORED. Yes, it looks beautiful and the acting is good, but the story was so slow and fragmented. Didn’t care about the characters at all. I can’t see myself investing the time to watch more episodes…
GSTAR it’s the “pilot” episode…you have to introduce all the players so that down the road you’ll be invested in the story arc. Just my opinion.
Give it another chance. Word is the first ep is the slowest moving. The stories pick up steam as they head to a collision course with each other.
Stick with it, the pilot covers the first 100-150 pages of the book which are extremely dull compared to the rest of the series. It takes off.
Hang in there, gstar.
That’s what LORD OF THE RINGS was missing… Bare breasts and doggie-style!
But the wolf fur capes were rock and roll.
I really loved the pilot. Yes, it was slow and fragmented, but it was extremely well written, produced and acted, and you could see an epic story is being set. Plus, the cliffhanger was beyond great.
These numbers are good. It’s nothing stellar, but it could ( and HBO certainly hopes it will ) grow with time, and the multiple airings. Plus, I may be wrong, but I do believe, like Boardwalk, the budget for next season will be smaller, since costumes, sets etc… were already produced.
YAY, Recorded it and just watched episode 1 Series 1, love dit. Attila the Hun meets Troy meet Alexander meets New Zealand meets Tolkien.
I loved the pilot and I feel that it follows along with the books wonderfully. There is nothing better then seeing a great book come to life and being able to put a face to your favorite characters. It could have been alot worse. Look at what happened to other fantasy books that made it to the the big screen or to TV i.e. Eragon and “The Seeker” which only loosely followed the stories they were based off of. I think I watched one episode of The Seeker before I turned it off disappointed that they ruined a great story that way.
Great news! The show looks tremendous and I was very encouraged by the pilot episode.
Having invested so much money in the sets, designs, costumes, etc, as long as it didn’t outright SUCK the show was going to be renewed.
Dungeons & Dragons w/tits. What’s not to love?
The premiere episode was fantastic. It was only slow because it was introducing every character and setting, etc. The story is amazing and will pick up pace. I thought they did a great job with casting and the sets and costumes were beautiful and so realistic. I loved these books and think their interpretation of the story is right on. Can’t wait till next week.
Only good things can happen with Sean Bean in a movie or television series. I hope he does more American mainstream movies from now on, tries to reach his full potential as an actor and tries to win an Oscar. He is an underrated actor and should have joined the A-list years ago.
[NERD]Game of Thrones is merely the title of the first book in the series. Since HBO is now committed to adapting at least one more book, shouldn’t they be calling this show A Song of Ice and Fire now?[/NERD]
In the end, I don’t really care what they call it, so long as they don’t pull the rug out like they did with Deadwood.
Loved the pilot episode. Watching these fantastic books come to life is going to be great fun!
Thrones is a ray of sunshine after having to endure the tepid Treme and indulgent In Treatment. This genre is not everybody’s cup of tea, so I commend HBO for putting this on the screen, it was well written, acted, and paced. Looking forward to every episode.
Great show. But I was curious too–originally Tom McCarthy was set to direct the pilot.
How does HBO and other payTv cable nets that produce these high concept shows make their money without ads and besides subscriber fees? If anyone can provide insights or links to online articles would be much appreciated.
Jordan – two words – “Ancillary Markets”….also the box sets will rake in the cashola as well.
One word for all those costs i.e. sets, costumes etc “AMORITZATION” account.
Tim Van Patten did indeed direct the pilot episode. I too thought it was extremely well done.
http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt1480055/
p.s. not sure where the visitor comes in though…
Great show..it was just an episode that i 1st AD’d for Tim back in 97.
Let the word of mouth do the job and you will see! Also, I live in canada and a lot of peoples saw the show by other “means” than HBO. I’m sure that the sales for the dvd will be stellar for there are millions of fans of the books.
I think this show will be like True Blood. True Blood started low than grew moderately throughout the season and then the ratings got really big for the 2nd season. Next week is Easter sunday so I dont know how that will effect the ratings but I think they will grow by the season finale.
Well, the difference is that True Blood sort of held your hand through the first few episodes, explaining carefully who each person was, and what they are. Thrones is much less forgiving, it introduced several fantasy concepts, political concepts, and over 20 characters all within the first episode. I must say I’m intrigued by the series, but I like a lot of non-readers of the Martin series, didn’t understand anything that was going on, and couldn’t sympathize with any of the characters really, except the boy who seems to get killed at the end…
I don’t really understand how HBO renews a series for a 2nd season before they see what the drop off ratings wise is for the 2nd episode, considering a lot of people might realize this isn’t high-fantasy like Lord of the Rings, and it’s uber-confusing, and just give up…the show does seem very promising though.
I agree with this. I’m a big fan of the books, but watching last night, I don’t think I’d have been able to follow any of it without having read the first book. Sooooo many characters introduced and it’s not even clear what the “sides” are. The significance of so much was simply shown, without context. I guess that’s often the case in an adaptation. As for rooting interests, without the books as a guide, I think Ned & Catelyn come off as sympathetic, as does Bran. Daenerys definitely comes off as sympathetic, though, without a guide from the books, those scenes would’ve entirely confounded me.
Of course, the intended audience is probably those, like me, who love the books and only need visual shorthand to introduce all the players and the storylines. I’m looking forward to the next several seasons, as well as the next book!
Ciao: “Plus, I may be wrong, but I do believe, like Boardwalk, the budget for next season will be smaller, since costumes, sets etc… were already produced.”
I disagree. If anything, the budget for the next season will have to be bigger, assuming the second season remains faithful to the original materials.
By the end of the first book/season, wars break out between the Houses, and the Barbarian Queen rises. The second book/season will be several major battles, including an extended epic sea battle that involves fire and water. Any production that involves fire mixed with water is going to be expensive. Magic is also returning to the lands, so are dragons. All those scenes are going to cost money.
It’s Caio
Well, I have just started reading book one,so I wouldn’t know storywhise, but knowing they spent 100 million dollars in 10 episodes, I highly doubt next season would be allowed to have a budget of this magnitude. It is pretty ridiculous and sounds like overbudget to me. And with all the sets and designs and costumes done, They’re gonna save a lot of money, even if they’ll spend a lot more in effects.
It season 2 is as high-budget as you make it seem, though, I’m curious how much GOT ratings will have to grow in order to justify that much money.
I just finished reading the second book and love them! The pilot episode was awesome!! It follows the book rather well, and as everyone is saying…it is slow at first but it does pick up and alot of stuff happens that I can’t wait to see come alive on screen!!
As a fan boy of the A Song Of Fire And Ice series, I am squealing with nerdish delight. yay!
Why does the press makes such a big deal about these pick-ups? The one thing that would be news is if HBO decided to see how a series played for 10 episodes before picking it up for a second season. HBO cannot afford to cancel shows that cost as much as these do to produce and then when they can as with the awful “In Treatment” they pick it up for a bunch of seasons because it’s cheap to produce and their vanity could not take the hit of admitting something didn’t work. Let’s face it….The Pacific was a boring gore fest that nobody watched, Boardwalk Empire, while ok has nowhere near the audience to justify the cost and moves at a snails pace, nobody watches In Treatment, Hung and Bored to Death while Entouage has been on its last legs for a couple of seasons and Mildred Pierce was a pale version of the original, though three times as long and absolutely no one watch it! I have to admit I can’t wait to see what they do with To Big To Fail. Doubt many viewers will check that out either.
Being an executive at HBO is the greatest job in the business. You get to make stuff nobody else can afford to produce and it doesn’t matter if anybody watches. You have the biggest marketing budgets in the industry, by a mile, and all that money goes to buy Emmy’s. I’ll give them True Blood although it’s not my type of show, but at least it has a fan base.
Because kasaja, many, many viewers are watching this OnDemand and DVR and HBO counts those numbers as it doesnt receive advertising. And remember The Wire was always low rated. Deadwood was also low rated but that canceled in an era before DVR, OnDemand and DVD sales mattered as much as live viewings.
They managed to fit incest, rape (close enough), and the killing of a child into the pilot. Talk about inaccessible…
I assume that incest, etc continues, so I’ll be surprised if it builds an audience. Won’t be surprised if most of the audience checks out. I already have.
Fantasy Reader – maybe the kid falls on the baby wolf and the wolf dies so the kid can live?????
I haven’t read the books so I’ll have to wait til next week.
it’s complete ridic I hated every minute of it- Incest, flesh, rudenessm dirt language no one gets. Embaressing HBO!
Well written commment! Kudos!
Are you speaking English? Or are you a real live doll? Who’s in love with Ken? In a made up world of Fox news?