Westeros Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 James Hibberd has the scoop that the premiere episode of season 3 of Game of Thrones, “Valar Dohaeris”, is the most watched episode ever of the series. The initial 9PM showing pulled 4.4 million viewers, while with repeats the show reached 6.7 million viewers. That’s an increase of 13 percent over last year’s premiere. And that’s with the Easter holiday and the finale of AMC’s smash hit The Walking Dead scheduled at the same time. Hibberd notes that the 10PM reairing in particular had strong numbers for a repeat, and he suggests that’s because some viewers switched to the show after Dead was done. By way of comparison, last year fellow HBO show True Blood scored 5.2 million viewers on the initial airing of their premiere… but just 6.3 million with repeats. Visit the Site! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Great news and was expected. The show kinda blew up in between seasons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briantw Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 So I guess this makes a renewal all but certain. Not that there was ever much doubt of that, but still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valyria&Essos Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Great News! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spring Bass Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 My guess is that they'll announce the renewal for Season 4 after the next episode, even if it's all but a given at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faint Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 I'm actually impressed given the unfavorable factors the show faced last night. I'm expecting much closer to five million viewers for the initial airing next week when it isn't Easter and without the Walking Dead to compete with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logodnica Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Fantastic news! I know they've been passing around scripts for season 4, but a renewal wouldn't have been certain without these numbers. The budget for season 3 was $50 mil. Anyone have an idea of how much HBO has made on this series since it started? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crown Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Wonderful! I think season 4 is a given now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faint Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 I don't know what the possibilities are but I am hoping they renew for season 4 and 5. I would think they could save on the overall budget that way instead of going with the yearly renewal (at the risk, of course, that the ratings fall off a cliff). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebevan91 Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Wonderful! I think season 4 is a given now.It would stupid for them not to.They've got themselves a money-maker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crown Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 It would stupid for them not to.They've got themselves a money-maker.Exactly, and the ratings won't drop during season 3 or season 4. Potentially during the later seasons, but that's not of our concern now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tyrion I Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Great news! It was certainly to be expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aFeastForDragons Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Wow, imagine the ratings it would get if it was viewable online. Near 10 million at least. That means S4 will be full steam ahead. I think S5 to S6 will be the deciding factor on the future for the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khal Porno Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Looks like audiences didn't hate season two nearly as much as some people here keep bleating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinkie Baelish Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Season 4 is pretty much guaranteed. Season 5, however, is harder to confirm. Let's hope viewers don't get turned off by the RW and ratings stay strong in season 4. HBO have got themselves a real money maker here. It's hard to deny the show's appeal, both nationally and internationally. If ratings continue improving, perhaps they should consider making Thrones their flagship show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anti-Targ Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Looks like audiences didn't hate season two nearly as much as some people here keep bleating.The only people who hated S2 were book fans, and book fans are a small minority of the TV audience, and book fans are not going to forsake the TV series for the scripting crimes that were committed last season (well not many at least). If you don't think about the books it's great TV. I didn't hate Season 2 but I hated bits of it and still do. I bought the Blu-ray but there are some scenes I simply won't watch because they are such travesties of adaptational change.I do find it interesting that the uber-nerds of the TV series (i.e. those who populate the unspoiled thread of the TV Without Pity forums) mostly reserve their harshest criticisms for those aspects of the series that are the biggest departures from the books; and they have no clue what's in any of the books. So not only are book fans disappointed with many changes, the nerd-geek TV fans find those [unbeknownst to them] changes to be rather poorly done TV.Anyway, enough of the gripes. Fantastic to see those numbers coming in. I always saw True Blood to be a bit of a success benchmark for GoT and I'm chuffed to see it beat TB. I hope S3 GoT ratings beat the snot out of S3 (whatever year that was) TB ratings.Season 4 is pretty much guaranteed. Season 5, however, is harder to confirm. Let's hope viewers don't get turned off by the RW and ratings stay strong in season 4. HBO have got themselves a real money maker here. It's hard to deny the show's appeal, both nationally and internationally. If ratings continue improving, perhaps they should consider making Thrones their flagship show.Who's going to get turned off by the RW? That should be about as awesome as Blackwater, but for different reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boojam Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 One again I think those are only North American ratings.Maybe by the end of the week we will see the foreign ratings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boojam Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Looks like audiences didn't hate season two nearly as much as some people here keep bleating.Don't count me, I am a book reader, and I liked season two, with the only proviso that season 3 should have the second half of CoK! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David C. Hunter Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Very good news. Im just hoping that by the time they get to season five they maybe pulling in 6 million viewers on the initial showing. More ratinsg predicts more suscriptions which predicts more dvd sales which predicts 'bigger budget' which is always a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Words of Winter Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 $50 million is a lot to recoup. As the actors get noticed, they will want more $. It is known, Har!Seriously, though. they have to make a profit on this or they will cancel it. I think season 4 will be a go, but books 4 & 5 will be harder to adapt, especially if TWoW isn't subtantially finished, if not published by the time the season 5 and 6 need to be written.Edit: D&D will need a better idea of where the characters go as season 5 and 6 commence so they can end up in the correct places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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