The Reckoner Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Do you think this Sunday's episode will see a decline in viewers, given the nature of it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faint Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Oh no! This season's ratings are up over last season's and it is the most watched show in its timeslot regularly, but they aren't reaching the ridiculous ratings episode one had! The show has definitely peaked and is obviously heading down the road to disaster because a small percentage of the viewers who have read the books are unhappy with the changes...which is in no way different from the first 4 seasons at all./end sarcasm I by no means think the show is not still a success but I do think a threshold has been crossed indicating that its trajectory has topped out. One way to think about this is that, prior to this year, no episode from a new season of Game of Thrones had ever garnered lower initial ratings than any episode from any previous season. Well, that has now happened four weeks running this season. And unless this week's episode can get at least 7.2 million initial viewers, the streak will continue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metheos Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Check out the graph of first airing ratings from the Wikipedia article (I can't include it in the post normally). The key here is that the only other season which didn't show clear growth in viewership was the oft-criticized Season 2, although that did have the boost at the end. In every other season, the show managed to top its premiere by episode 5. It's also the only season where the audience for any episode was lower than the audience for any episode from previous seasons. While the gross audience for the premiere (live, DVR, online) was higher for S5E1 (18.1) than S4E1 (reportedly a million higher), it was lower than the average for season 4 (reported as either 18.6 or 19.1) Unfortunately, I haven't yet found gross audience for episodes other than the premiere. If ratings rise slightly but not as dramatically as previous seasons, it's probably due to saturation. If ratings don't increase to above what S4 achieved, it's viewers leaving. We'll see soon enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgeIAF Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Just wait when the show will catch up with the books, the ratings will explode then, i think it will go constantly over 10 million. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shk12344 Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Do you think this Sunday's episode will see a decline in viewers, given the nature of it? I think it will either remain the same or slightly decline. I think the tv show has reached peak and won't gain any viewers anymore this season or the next. The story has gotten too bloated and has too many characters for new viewers to follow or to care about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cas Stark Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 It's possible we could see a slight increase due to the Will Sansa Be Raped and Tortured Or Won't She storyline, if that doesn't bring an increase in viewers, then I'd say we're on the way to topped out until or unless the show regains it's word of mouth water cooler buzz, which I don't see it having so far this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faint Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Check out the graph of first airing ratings from the Wikipedia article (I can't include it in the post normally). That graph is actually a very good demonstrative of what I was writing about. For the first time, ratings for the initial airing of an episode are dipping below the line set by previous seasons. Having said, I do not think this has anything to do with quality. It is very difficult to grow viewership fifty episodes in. It has almost never been done before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz Stark-Targaryen Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Just wait when the show will catch up with the books, the ratings will explode then, i think it will go constantly over 10 million. :agree: Next season, if D&D didn't get too crazy or over the top with the Winterfell storyline, I think we'll start seeing viewership explode. That graph is actually a very good demonstrative of what I was writing about. For the first time, ratings for the initial airing of an episode are dipping below the line set by previous seasons. Having said, I do not think this has anything to do with quality. It is very difficult to grow viewership fifty episodes in. It has almost never been done before. We're thick in the midst of AFFC and ADwD material. It's not like those were the most popular books of the series. Seasons 3 & 4 featured material from ASoS, which is the best book in the series so far, and is often rated one of the 10-20 fantasy novels written in the 21st century so far. TWoW is the most anticipated book right now in the world, and Season 6 has to start delving into that material. This is a lull, but from here, there's nowhere to go but up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
protar Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Just wait when the show will catch up with the books, the ratings will explode then, i think it will go constantly over 10 million. Why? Most viewers probably aren't even aware that the show is overtaking the books. And even if they were why would they be more inclined to watch it at that point? If this drop in viewership is indicative of people being dissatisfied with the quality of the books, then the downward trend will continue into S6 imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boojam Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 It will be interesting to see what the buzz generates for Episode 9 this year. It should really contain a zinger surprise bigger than the Red Wedding. If it comes off Peter-Jackson-style and there is a dip like season 2 for Blackwater I wonder if the after buzz will cause a big catch up , but then we may never know what the week's total was. Has HBO ever released their 'comprehensive' viewer totals for Episode 1? There was a preliminary but didn't see the final. How about Episode 2 ? Enough time has passed now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boojam Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 HBO-GO has not solved HBO's problems: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/05/12/game-of-thrones-again-sets-piracy-world-record-and-hbo-is-to-blame/ I did not know Netflix cannot? really? be pirated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intheswamp Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 I expect viewership to go up a little next week. The entertainment industry thrives on people caring, whether in support or against the product. Outrage is often a stronger pull. It is why the Kardashians are a thing and Tom Brady jerseys are selling better now than they have in a long time. In other words, a great way to get people to care is to piss them off. The Sansa scene caused a bit of an uproar. Now, some viewers will tune in just to see what the outpouring was about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cas Stark Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 The audience dropped again for Sunday's episode. The lowest since 2013. http://headlineplanet.com/home/2015/05/19/ratings-hbos-game-of-thrones-viewership-hits-two-year-low/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drogonthedread Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 The audience dropped again for Sunday's episode. The lowest since 2013. http://headlineplanet.com/home/2015/05/19/ratings-hbos-game-of-thrones-viewership-hits-two-year-low/ well i think you will know what will be the reason given ...it was mothers day you know and i think we we will not get an rise next week also because its on memorial day the episodes 8,9 and ten should have high numbers for this seasons considering all three episodes will be having major set pieces Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cas Stark Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 well i think you will know what will be the reason given ...it was mothers day you know and i think we we will not get an rise next week also because its on memorial day the episodes 8,9 and ten should have high numbers for this seasons considering all three episodes will be having major set pieces The show has lost audience in every episode this year. Sunday's episode had fewer viewers than any episode of last season. It might a slight boost as somebody said of people curious about Sansa's story next week. But, other than maybe a boost for the finale I don't see why there would be any kind of a big increase for the last couple of episodes. I don't think people generally watch TV like that...not watch a series the entire season and then tune in for the end? And most of the 6 million audience are probably not book readers so they have no idea of anything that is coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drogonthedread Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 The show has lost audience in every episode this year. Sunday's episode had fewer viewers than any episode of last season. It might a slight boost as somebody said of people curious about Sansa's story next week. But, other than maybe a boost for the finale I don't see why there would be any kind of a big increase for the last couple of episodes. I don't think people generally watch TV like that...not watch a series the entire season and then tune in for the end? And most of the 6 million audience are probably not book readers so they have no idea of anything that is coming. i agree but what i think is that people as now learned that GOT will have huge movements in episode 9 and ten (casual viewers)...so they will try watch it live than any other earlier episodes which they may watch on a rewatch .. i dont see GOT going more than 7 million viewers ...it is going to be always around 6.5 to around 7... i just say this because we actually get lots of reaction videos for those two episodes compared to those of earlier episodes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Septa Sofia Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 It feels like the start of a decline, the die-hard fans are getting fed up with the changes and the material is too dense for new viewers to just drop into, after this weeks episode I have recommended to my friends who are book fans and only catch the season on box-set not to bother, wait for the books and see it out on the page...I'm tempted to do the same, still dithering whether to ditch the season now or to see the last four episodes through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shk12344 Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 As I said previously, show has reached peak. The story is too unwieldy and is longer "followable" except for those who have invested time and effort keeping track of the storylines and various characters. The quality of the story suffered because the producers simply can't spend enough time building up storylines or characters, so the show feels rushed and underdeveloped. D&D has proven to be poor story tellers.who's more interested to making points rather than telling coherent story. I think veiwership will continue to decline slightly over last three episodes as viewers give up on the show. It will probably stay in downward path in season 6 but will pick up in season 7 as people who stopped watching will come back for the ending of the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anti-Targ Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 There is a notable drop in enthusiasm for the show, and much less speculation about what will happen and more commentary on what has happened in the Unsullied thread on Previously TV. There also seems to be fewer participants in that thread than in the early years. While the Unsullied thread on PTV represents a negligible proportion of viewers it is interesting to see that the ratings are waning somewhat just as the Unsullied enthusiasm is waning somewhat. Still, the show seems like it will retain a robust audience through the remaining seasons. The people who remain invested int he show at this point in its lifecycle are pretty much in for the long haul, and if that's 6 million people that's going to be good enough. Considering "only" 3 million tuned in for the finale for Mad Men. The problem with epic Fantasy is that it is so hard to actually end the story in a satisfactorily epic manner way. Wheel of Time was such a let down, which can only partly be laid at the feet of the subbed in author. We don't know how this story ends in GRRM's mind, and translating whatever that end is to the screen seems like it will be difficult, because this whole undertaken has proven to be difficult to translate to screen (or beyond the competence of the main writers at least). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeethGrinder Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 I said this would be the season the ratings start to fall. I don't see it recovering to the level of that season 5 première until maybe the final few episodes although it will still be very popular. I've noticed the enthusiasm drop as well - People growing tired of certain characters - Dany in particular is annoying a lot of show watchers. I can honestly say I'll quit watching the show if certain characters die and other storylines remain cut. There's very little I'm invested in right now with the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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