Four million people want to choke this weasel
Are you a person with a television? Does your cable package include premium channels? If so, you probably watched the season premiere of “Game of Thrones” on Sunday night.
Thrones returned to 3.9 million viewers. That’s up a massive 74 percent from its series debut last year. It also greatly improves upon the show’s previous all-time high, which was just over 3 million viewers. Including all three Sunday airings, the show delivered 6.3 million viewers. The numbers mean a third season renewal is pretty much guaranteed (and also dissolves any concerns that last season’s killing of popular characters would result in a dip). [EW]
Not only was the near four million viewers an all-time high for the show, it was also a full million more than “Mad Men” pulled in (and over two million more than “The Killing”), despite the fact that AMC reaches substantially more homes than HBO. This is excellent news for fans of the show, because, as the blockquote indicates, it all but guarantees HBO will renew it at some point this afternoon (the only question is whether it will get picked up for one season or two). As long as they stay committed to things like strong plot structure, breathtaking cinematography, gratuitous nudity and bloodshed, and main characters slapping Joffrey in the face once a season at minimum, I support this development wholeheartedly.
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I could not help myself last night after whetting my appetite on Sunday and watched the leaked second episode. Now I’ve got nothing to do for two weeks :/
I regret nothing.
I want to do this so bad, but my fiancee would kill me. I’d try to act like I didn’t see it, but she knows. She ALWAYS KNOWS.
We had friends over Sunday night who don’t have HBO. Should I start charging them if they want to come over every week? HBO isn’t free.
Abso-fucking-lutely. It’s not TV. It’s HBO!
maybe show them this post and they won’t want to come over anymore?
Don’t charge them. Force them to buy HBO subscription thus driving up ratings thus increasing Thrones ratings thereby proving the producers with a bigger budget which = MORE EPICNESS!!!
Food and bourbon would be a fair trade.
Damn, 6.3 million for the Sunday total? That’s damn near Walking Dead numbers.
Give tons of credit to HBO. They knew they had a hit on their hands, supported it with outstanding marketing and more budget dollars for the showrunners, and is justly reaping the rewards. Although, this being Game of Thrones, I expect a sniveling Starz executive to execute Caroyln Strauss and take command of the network any minute. STUNNING PLOT TWIST!
Hopefully this inspires GRRM to finish the last few books of ASoIaF. The guy is not getting any younger.
UU, have you read GRRM’s comments about (not) letting the show catch up to his writing? He doesn’t seem to think it will be an issue… and he also read a chapter from TWoW a couple of weeks ago at an event/convention thing where he said that he’s about 200 pages into TWoW, after having started up again fulltime in January. All of that being said, I wouldn’t count on it, especially since IMHO it’s probably even money that the series goes 8 books. But, if he “pulls a Robert Jordan,” apparently he has told the conclusion in broad strokes to Weiss and Benioff.
I had a cancer scare earlier this year (best case: 3 stitches; worst case: dead in 12 months) and one of the thoughts bouncing around my head while waiting for the test results was “Damnit, I’m never going to know how this fucker ends.”
That number is definitely higher a shit load higher, theres tons of people who don’t have hbo and download the episode (I count myself amongst them) Don’t worry I’ll make it up to hbo by buying the season dvd’s
I would gladly give HBO money to watch it. Problem is the way cable is set up you have to have the deluxe channel package before you can even get HBO which means paying for shit I will never watch. I buy merch and DVDs to mitigate their losses. It may not make me happy, but their losses are mitigated.
The cable system is so fucked up. I do the same internet rip-off then compensate through DVD thing as well, as do a lot of people I know. I would like to think it will eventually result in cable companies changing policy. Bahahahahahaha! Yeah that will never happen
I would watch a whole episode of characters lining up to slap Joff, Airplane style.
When its Danny’s turn she doesn’t slap him she just allows her baby dragons to mull his face
What has two thumbs and loves watching Joffery get slapped?
This guy.
As far as killing popular characters goes: The way GOT did It was well done, and there was a number of other very cool and interesting characters to pick up the slack. Also it showed you how fucking metal Westeros was.
Compare that to Boardwalk Empire who killed off probably their only good character on the show. I have a feeling Boardwalk Empire is going to see a viewer dip. I certainly wont watch it anymore every other character on the show is a cartoon from the 1930s and not a real person.
Chalkie lives.
There is a point if you wach those two gifs long enough where they align and Joffrey gets slapped twice simultaneously. It is the most glorious things I have ever seen.
I just started the second book and can’t decide if I should read ahead or wait for the season to end.
(Whitest white person problem ever)
Hey I’m brown and have the same problem. Anyway I like reading it after just because of the cliffhangers each week.
Read ahead. I’ve read that the show departs more from the books this season than it did last season, when there were virtually no differences. Also, the third book (as you may have heard) will melt your face off a minimum of three times (these three events are actually pretty evenly spaced in the book, too).
Damn it prof talc, you’ve convinced me to read ahead. Any book that turns my face into the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark is too hard to resist.
Reading ahead doesn’t ruin the show for me, but it makes me want to slap GRRM Joffrey style.
You will not be disappointed.
Prof talc, I’m reading book 3 right now and I just got to the first of those moments that you talk about. I need a hug right now. -_-
David, I feel ya’ big guy.
My only complaint about this show is that it makes me wish for the weekend to be nearly over so I can watch the latest. Sitting on my couch on Friday night, WISHING it was Sunday? Sad.
#REALLY First World Problem
How much would you pay for Pay-per-View right now to be able to watch the rest of the season right now? I think I’m somewhere near $100.
You would think the cast would be aware of how much internet love there is for Joffrey slapping. There has to be some on set antics/out-takes of everyone lining up to slap him. The actor might not feel too happy about it but pretty soon random people in the street will greet him with a cheekwarmer. I know I would.
The Tyrion triple whammy gif is more hypnotic than the famous Snooki punch.
Credit where it’s due – the kid that plays Joffrey is actually quite good. Very effective at making me hate the character and then in the first episode of this season what he says to Cersi right after the image up there is pretty badass.