How many seasons?

[undertow]

Realistically, how many seasons do you think this show will go for? While HBO is willing to go out on a limb for shows with low ratings like The Wire, I can't help but think of Rome (which I think is very similar to AGOT) and Carnivale (another fantasy setting with a dedicated fanbase). Will it get up to three? Four? Even seven?

[Tall Tyrion Lannister!]

Hopefully 7.

[Brienne the Beauty]

As long as they do the Red Wedding, I'll be happy. In fact, that'd be an awesome place to end if it gets cancelled early. Imagine the wails!

[adamsputnik]

I'd say it depends also on how many of the books get finished ;)

Ratings for season one will be a huge determining factor. I can see them persisting with it for another season, but if it struggles it might not last much longer than that (or any longer at all). So hopefully the buzz will be strong enough to attract more than us faithful retainers and a few hangers-on.

[Werthead]

Realistically, how many seasons do you think this show will go for? While HBO is willing to go out on a limb for shows with low ratings like The Wire, I can't help but think of Rome (which I think is very similar to AGOT) and Carnivale (another fantasy setting with a dedicated fanbase). Will it get up to three? Four? Even seven?

Previous 'big' HBO shows have been killed off by cost (Rome) or by the creator pulling out so he can go make some ego-centric piece of crap (Deadwood) or by the producer not being able to handle the budget and going off the rails (Carnivale). The Wire survived by costing, by HBO standards, the equivalent of lost change down the back of the sofa to produce.

GoT is kind of protected from all of these. It's half the cost of Rome (at least) and it's protected from the producer owning the property. If Benioff goes off after Season 3 or something to concentrate on his movie career, there is absolutely no reason why someone else couldn't take over.

So, GoT should go quite a long way, as long as it doesn't totally tank at the first hurdle (i.e. the viewing figures for Episode 1).

[aimlessgun]

Previous 'big' HBO shows have been killed off by cost (Rome) or by the creator pulling out so he can go make some ego-centric piece of crap (Deadwood) or by the producer not being able to handle the budget and going off the rails (Carnivale). The Wire survived by costing, by HBO standards, the equivalent of lost change down the back of the sofa to produce.

GoT is kind of protected from all of these. It's half the cost of Rome (at least) and it's protected from the producer owning the property. If Benioff goes off after Season 3 or something to concentrate on his movie career, there is absolutely no reason why someone else couldn't take over.

So, GoT should go quite a long way, as long as it doesn't totally tank at the first hurdle (i.e. the viewing figures for Episode 1).

Thanks for the reassurance!

[Padraig]

Yes, hopefully there will be at least 3 (or 4 seasons) to take us up to the end of aSoS. But if the quality remains high, I don't see why we can't go to the very end of the series. :)

[Phantom]

If it's popular enough 10, I'm guessing. They might split ACoK, and most definitely ASoS. So that's 5 there. AFfC and ADwD will probably run simultaneously, so both together so that's 7. TWoW, and then two seasons for ADoS, totaling 10.

[Dennai]

I've always thought that we'll get a minimum of three, in the logic that, keeping a book per season idea, at the end of the third one we could get some sort of closure. Sure, we wouldn't get a conclusion for Dany's storyline or the Others threat, but the initial main plot -the War of the Five Kings- it's kind of over, and you finish the other story lines more with a set-up that a cliffhanger. It's not ideal, but it's not the worst case scenario either and allows the chance to continue the show in the future if some new management or other investors decide eventually give it a try, going for the 5 years leap that George imagined back in the day.