[NO SPOILERS] Ratings and Demographics

[Tywin's bastard]

The Wire had a small budget. And they aren't going to view making a fantasy series the same way as making The Wire, a show with direct social commentary.

That's true but they can still be committed to putting on a quality show (which is important to HBO, compared to a network that sells ads) and while the budget is much bigger GoT is HBO's biggest international seller (rumors saying that international sales alone has covered 1/3 to 1/2 of the budget) and exactly the kind of show that will sell great on DVD/BR. So while you are very correct in that The Wire lived on very different factors there's certainly things that speak for GoT.

[peterbound]

Official US numbers get released today (HBO likes to add up all the encore presentations for the numbers), and early US projections (and let's be honest, that's all that really matters) aren't looking all that great. Could the 'Game of Thrones' premier parties be to blame?

The numbers only count households. A bunch of geeks watching it at a central viewing point could hurt the numbers, and not truly reflect /all/ the people watching. Those that enjoyed the premier need to get an HBO subscription, and if you want extra credit, email HBO and tell them the reason you are getting it.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/04/early_ratings_game_of_thrones.html

[Datepalm]

Official US numbers get released today (HBO likes to add up all the encore presentations for the numbers), and early US projections (and let's be honest, that's all that really matters) aren't looking all that great. Could the 'Game of Thrones' premier parties be to blame?

The numbers only count households. A bunch of geeks watching it at a central viewing point could hurt the numbers, and not truly reflect /all/ the people watching. Those that enjoyed the premier need to get an HBO subscription, and if you want extra credit, email HBO and tell them the reason you are getting it.

http://nymag.com/dai...of_thrones.html

Could that really have made a significant impact? Even if every person who's read the books ever watched with six friends, presumably most of them went home and recorded it anyway. I'm really more curious about how many non-book-readers watched it, since I assume HBO aren't relying on the people who have read the books as their entire audience.

From some random browsing about IMDB/TWOP/Tv.com/HBO forums (and here) over the past few days, it seems people who've never read the books are in a fairly small minority. Maybe it just takes time for people who've just watched something to really develop an urge to go talk about it - let a few episodes happen and some conspiracies begin to crop up, I suppose. (And certainly here at least theres an enormous influx of lurkers. Creepy.)

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

Official US numbers get released today (HBO likes to add up all the encore presentations for the numbers), and early US projections (and let's be honest, that's all that really matters) aren't looking all that great. Could the 'Game of Thrones' premier parties be to blame?

The numbers only count households. A bunch of geeks watching it at a central viewing point could hurt the numbers, and not truly reflect /all/ the people watching. Those that enjoyed the premier need to get an HBO subscription, and if you want extra credit, email HBO and tell them the reason you are getting it.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/04/early_ratings_game_of_thrones.html

If you read more than just the title, the news is pretty good actually. I don't think anyone thought it would match Boardwalk Empire. :rolleyes:

[Petergrifindor]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/apr/19/game-of-thrones-sky-atlantic-ratings

[needle]

It managed to beat Boardwalk Empire quite comfortably in the UK, however, as Peter's link above shows.

We managed to get Sky through our x-box and are watching it tonight. Yay!

[Ferrum Aeternum]

I have been tracking Amazon sales of A Game of Thrones over the last couple of weeks. They have been steadily rising as the premiere approached and kept increasing after the premiere last night. The mass-market paperback is in the Top 100 books. The Kindle edition has risen into the Top 10 of Kindle sales. The four book package of ASoIaF is at #4 on the Top 100. I think there is a very good possibility that the ratings for the show will steadily build as more people get into the books.

I agree, and the buzz will grow exponentially as a result, as folks get excited about the books and tell all their friends.

The most promising news I can offer about potential future success of GoT comes from my own family: My mom and brother-in-law, neither of whom have ever paid any attention to the fantasy genre (my mom has never even read LOTR or seen the movies) both watched the GoT premiere sunday night, and are both hooked! Mom is ordering HBO just so she can watch, and my brother in law is just as hyped about it now as my sister is. He started reading her copy of AGOT last night. Hopefully there are a lot more stories like this.

[TheEvilKing]

The second season will be where ratings really count. How many people have bought the DVD and are now hooked? Don't expect many people to suddenly join in the first season half way through, when they've missed most of the episodes.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Televisionary is retweeting that HBO's figures indicate 2.2 million viewers on average Sunday night. That's double what Mildred Pierce was getting. The median age was also 44.2. I'm trying to find a primary article that says this too. The figures come from Brad Adgate, but his own blog seems to be about a year out of date. I'm still looking for a non-Twitter source.

This, in addition to the record Sky viewers above, is a good thing. (I'm looking at you here, julandro.)

[ingsve]

2.2 million viewers seems like a low number compared to the nielsen household rating of 1.6 that was mentioned. I also wonder whether it is the average for just the first viewing or if it's an average over all three consecutive airings. I guess it's better to just wait for official cumulative numbers from HBO.

[SleepyNonah]

Just a bit of a caveat to the UK figures: the show's at a bit of a disadvantage in Ireland due to it being on Sky Atlantic. The Sky packages are extortionately expensive compared to the other cable provider here (UPC, who also bundle broadband and telephony) and, as such, UPC has been eating their market share at a phenomenal rate.

While it's not pay-per-view, Sky are holding back Pacific (their HBO programming channel) from the other cable providers (who they do sell Movies and Sports packages through) and promoting the big name programming: Boardwalk Empire, Blue Bloods and Game of Thrones have all featured heavily heavily in billboard campaigns etc.

I believe it's a fairly fultile attempt to claw back / retain their subscription base in a recessionary climate where households are looking to cut back and their content is all easily accessed on-line (albeit illegaly).

I'd happily subscribte to Atlantic via UPC once it wasn't unreasonably expensive (say an extra 5-10 euro a month or so) but I'm not about to switch to Sky and find an alternate broadband provider in order to view it. I will, of course, be buying the box-set(s?) though and hopefully will be helping fund the series being made that way.

TLDR: The Sky figures underestimate the numbers actually watching the show in Ireland and the UK. Box set Sales will be much higher than the viewership might indicate.

[Bird of the Canals]

Yikes, 2.2 million only? For their most expensive show? Don't expect a Season 2 I guess =/

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Televisionary's addendum: "Let's be aware that those are preliminary ratings, most likely based on the initial broadcast and do not include DVR, etc."

So yes, very likely only the very first broadcast, certainly no more than Sunday (based on the @badgate quote), and are also very likely to go up when the directly-official numbers are out.

And who knows, maybe the new 2.2 mil figure actually represents viewing households, not individual viewers. Definitely twiddling my thumbs until HBO speaks, though!

SleepyNonah - I'm totally with you. I'm so glad I'm on a business trip right now, and don't have to deal with UPC/NTL and Sky. (I was with UPC until January, and the Sky Apartment stuff was only just starting to be available in my then-current building.) I'm very lucky to know a few people who might have let me come watch with them, but otherwise I'd undoubtedly be watching in an uncountable manner.

Bird of the Canals - True Blood premiered with 1.44 million viewers and is now their biggest show by far. (The metacritic-style rating also started at about 64, compared to GoT's 81.) Not as expensive as GoT, I'm sure, but don't get too down just yet.

[Xenophon]

According to this article, the total audience for all three US showings on Sunday night was 4.2 million (2.2 + 1.2 + 800K). That's not including DVR, etc.

Edit: Entertainment Weekly's analysis. "Good not great, but HBO will be happy enough"

[julandro]

Televisionary is retweeting that HBO's figures indicate 2.2 million viewers on average Sunday night. That's double what Mildred Pierce was getting. The median age was also 44.2. I'm trying to find a primary article that says this too. The figures come from Brad Adgate, but his own blog seems to be about a year out of date. I'm still looking for a non-Twitter source.

This, in addition to the record Sky viewers above, is a good thing. (I'm looking at you here, julandro.)

2.26 million viewers, it still seems too little. The series has cost more than $ 60 million.

Indeed, it seems very strange that HBO has not said anything about the second season.

[The Scabbard Of the Morning]

Yes but remember they made $25 million of the $60 million back on foreign broadcast rights alone.

Also, the 2.26 is based that subscribers only, that's I think where the discrepancy with the Nielsen 1.6. The Nielsen 1.6 is probably based on overall numbers and that's probably close to 3 million, with that extra 700-800k being people getting free HBO for the weekend.

[Xenophon]

2.26 million viewers, it still seems too little. The series has cost more than $ 60 million.

Indeed, it seems very strange that HBO has not said anything about the second season.

Calm down. The number is considerably higher when you look at all three showings.

[Abaddon]

You really have to compare apples to apples, and 4.2 mil is 60% of Bordwalk Empire's premiere numbers, which is honestly great. BE was hyped as written by the creator of the Sopranos, the premiere directed by Scorsese, and it's a gangster series which means a lot of people saw it as Sopranos 2.0.

The 2.26 makes sense because of the NBA playoffs going on. The fact that so many viewers came back for the 2nd or 3rd showing is very encouraging. Also, they haven't included the numbers from last night's airing.

All in all, these are good numbers, nothing at all to be worried about.

[Xenophon]

The 2.26 makes sense because of the NBA playoffs going on. The fact that so many viewers came back for the 2nd or 3rd showing is very encouraging. Also, they haven't included the numbers from last night's airing.

And not just any NBA game. It was game 1 of the first New York-Boston playoff series since 1990! Two huge media markets resuming a long-awaited rivalry. And it was an amazing game that came down to the last shot. I was excited for GoT, but there was no way I was missing that game.

[Ser_not_appearing_yet]

The total number of viewers taking into acount the Sunday night repeats is 4.2 million. Don't worry guys, that's a good number.