A host of new interviews and articles, plus the preview ratings

I think it’s somewhat of a low number. Our goal is to not beat Camelot or The Borgias, but to beat The Walking Dead which premiered with 5.3 million viewers. Lets ALL subscribe to HBO and become salesmen and marketers for our favorite show.

I don’t understand. How is 720,000 viewers a small number for a preview?

Also not included in the 720,000 are people like myself who watched it online…I did purchase an HBO subscription but it wasn’t set up until this morning =(

Jason did a great job together with Ryan Lambie. In my opinion, it’s the funniest and best interview I’ve ever read of Jason and I’ve read a lot and most of them were hilarious.

Well to be fair, I have seen it advertised for the past few weeks behind any promo spot that HBO played of it. Is it a big deal? I don’t think so. Many of the people I know who are ASOIF fans and who plan on signing up for HBO just for this series didn’t even know it was on. Plus HBO isn’t exactly running their top rated shows right now (except for True Blood reruns).

Seems our feud with the butt-hurt Lost fanboys has gone public lol…

LINK.

Hah, got quoted on the Twitter, thanks WiC!

My hope for pilotratings is getting the same number as Boardwalk Empire (4.8). And then keeping the viewers hooked, because BE lost alot of viewers in the following weeks. But that was also due to the BE-pilot falling in a free HBO weekend, meaning that many viewers weren’t HBO-subscribers.

But I’m guessing it will be between 2.5 and 3 million viewers (based on absolutely nothing).

Surely I cannot be the only person to find Jason Momoa’s feelings towards horses to be most ironic. Funny guy.

Knurk,

Maybe we should have a pool. Based on the 80/20 rule, I’ll guess 3.6 million viewers. If that makes me overly optimistic, so be it.

Caught this on Westeros: a fan’s review of the first 2 episodes at a screening in London (careful there are spoilers).

LINK.

Eat that frakking horse, Momoa!

Those are great numbers for a PREVIEW, especially one with no advertisement. Many casual viewers most likely skipped the preview. So I think this bodes well for GoT.

I tuned in just for the preview, but I may very well be in the minority there. I bet most people got it online.

I’m totally glad that GRRM is aware of the Lost problem. I haven’t seen Lost (and probably won’t for exactly this reason), but I’ve seen plenty of other shows where it became apparent that the writers had no idea where they were going. There’s nothing worse than a show that appears to be setting up something big, but is actually setting up nothing.

You see all these plot threads and think “Whoa, this is so amazing, how does this stuff all fit together?” But then it just doesn’t. It is like reading a Sherlock Holmes mystery where at the end it is revealed that Holmes has no idea what happened, and he was just wandering around doing random things to confuse us.

Anyway, I’m very glad that GRRM hates this kind of thing too, because it gives me confidence that he is not going to do it himself, that he knows where he is going and how everything fits together, and that it will in fact be awesome.

The numbers were MUCH less than I had hoped. I don’t see how not even getting a 1 could be considered good news.

http://blog.zap2it.com/kate_ohare/2011/04/todays-brew-game-of-thrones—-before-after-part-2.html

First negative or lackluster review that I’ve seen. Seems the reviewer is just not a fantasy fan. She states that for her to be interested she has to have stakes and a side to root for, but I think she fails to explain how Game of Thrones doesn’t have those qualities other than the fact that she thinks fantasy is lame or because the erratic weather is not explained.

It looks like HBO is quietly releasing more and more screenshots and pics from the first three episodes…which means they’re all over Tumblr right now! Wasn’t sure if they’d been seen here, yet.

@TheDarkStar: It’s good because it was a preview with no real advertising. The majority of viewers don’t tune in to see 15 minutes of something. They’d rather just watch something light for an hour than go to bed. The fact that so many watched the preview is a good sign because it will mean even more will watch the actual show.

Even so True Blood didn’t get good ratings it’s first episode. It was a buzz show.

The DarkStar: The numbers were MUCH less than I had hoped. I don’t see how not even getting a 1 could be considered good news.

I agree. The very weak Mildred Pierce (and the fact that 90% of the MP viewers quite probably do not fit any component of the GOT demographic) is not doing GOT any favors. But think of it this way: do I want to miss the first 15 minutes of whatever is on opposite the GOT preview just to see something that I can watch in its entirety in two weeks? Probably not. These were MP viewers, not GOT viewers. If it is true that DirecTV is running another free HBO weekend April 16-17 in major markets , that will bump the number substantially.

Mirri Maz: i have no idea what qualafies as good or bad.

More HBO subscribers = good
Fewer HBO subscribers = bad
(As measured by hard numbers and questionnaires sent out via email and on request regarding viewing habits).

The closest thing to a negative review so far, and she still says:

The good news: I didn’t hate it. The production design is gorgeous; the horses are gorgeous; Sean Bean is awesome, and gorgeous. The dialogue is good; the acting is excellent (but then I’m a big Peter Dinklage fan in any setting — he’s in the picture below, at right); and it doesn’t look cheesy (yeah, Starz’ “Camelot,” I’m looking at you, here).

LOL! This show is gonna be AWESOME.

In regards to the ratings, let’s all remember that True Blood, HBO’s most popular show which will likely go on for 6-7 seasons, or possibly even 8-10 if the creators are so inclined, premiered with 1.4 million. We already have 50% of that tuning in to a PREVIEW.
I think even if we do get a modest 1.5-2 million tuning in, it’s the sort of show that is going to build an audience. It isn’t like Boardwalk Empire, which whilst amazing, for some people can be a snooze-fest. It’s much more similar to True Blood in this regard, fast paced, action packed and cliff hangers.
I esitmate that regardless of the premier, the finale will be around 3-4 million minium, and this is easily enough to keep it on the air. This will need to increase to around 5 million for us to be confident of a full series run though.

Was anyone else bothered by that “negative” review?

“Game of Thrones” has dire wolves. Now, dire wolf sounds cool, which is maybe why the author used the term, but they’re real, and they only existed in North and South America during the Pleistocene Epoch. Is this North America during the Pleistocene? If so, where are the giant sloths, mammoths and American lions?

…….really…….REALLY? Oh, Ok.

NEXT!

I’m not dissing the author or faulting her for not liking the show, but you are honestly better off not trying to make sense of the meandering logic trail that makes up that article.

Wow. She lost me as a reader entirely when she decided to compare Game of Thrones to “Dancing With The Stars”. If that’s her idea of really engaging entertainment, I guess we just don’t have a lot in common….

Nick: We already have 50% of that tuning in to a PREVIEW.

No, we don’t.

The majority (probably)of those people tuned in for Mildred pierce -which was scheduled at 09.00 – and got this instead. Many of these people probably just sat through it waiting for MP to start.

I’m not saying this has to mean GOT will get so-so ratings for the premiere, but… yeah. It’s a little disappointing.

Edit: On the brighter side, though it would gain viewers from “fooling” MP fans, it would also lose the ones more interested in the show by not being on the tv-scheduel.

Nick,

Nick, I don’t disagree with your assessment, but let’s remember that True Blood costs (relatively) nothing (with a cast a fraction of the size of GOT’s) and Boardwalk Empire costs a fortune and is delivering half that audience in the same time slot. If there’s one thing the post-TB world has shown HBO it’s that it can potentially draw 5 million with a cheap show. The jury is out on whether Mr. Lombardo will hunt for something closer to the TB model than the BE model if GOT doesn’t pull big enough numbers.

TJ,

I don’t really care about that review. Seems she had a problem with GOT not being “the guys in white vs the guys in black” as D&D would have put it.

And also, there was praise for the acting and so forth. And this review won’t be read by many, so it’s not bad publicity for the show.

pualo:
Shorter Kate O’Hare: I don’t like GoT because it’s not cliched enough.

True. By comparing it to the Star Wars prequels (ugh, no) vs. original trilogy, she basically said that she wanted a typical hero quest story, and not something full of political intrigue.

It’s fair enough if she’s just not interested, but considering she listed all those strong points (excellent writing, acting, dialogue, production values, etc.) it kind of makes no sense that she didn’t like it. So, kind of a stupid review… especially when she kept going on about reality TV dancing shows.

She does what I do a lot of the time when I don’t like something. Try to come up with a reason I don’t like it, and think through strange pathways of logic that seem to make sense but actually don’t. At the end of the day, some of the things I don’t like, I just don’t like them because I just don’t like them. She pulls out the old “why set this in an imaginary realm” thing that I hear a lot.

She still likes it better than Camelot :) If we can get numbers as good as that trash got we’ll be fine.

The 750K is only the ones who watched it on TV. Web stuff does not count.

And regarding the review, all the rambling aside the reviewer feels no connection to the people , she doesnt care for them. This could be worrysome when caring for the people is paramount for tv-show to be successfull. On the other side alot of people says part 5 and 6 is amazing lets just hope enough people are left to watch by then. Auch now im sounding all whiny , sorry but the numbers was a let down.

Eye-switcher,

She’s the only reviewer I’ve heard that’s mentioned feeling no connection to the characters, and judging by how much she cares for the contestants of Dancing with the Stars, I’m not too worried. I think HBO audiences will be more open minded.

I’m not too worried about the preview. Unless you were visiting WiC or other fansites, or watching right before Mildred Pierce the week before, you wouldn’t have known about the preview. Plus, it was just a preview. AND The Killing and The Borgias were debuting at the same time the preview aired. I’m more interested in the numbers GoT pulls for the pilot. God, I hope they are good numbers. Like The Walking Dead numbers.

Jason Momoa intereview rocked. He’s hillarious. I can almost picture him doing the Haka. Awesome! Interesting that he lets the author believe Drogo could be back in future seasons. Hmmmmmm.

Yes Jim True enough, but with regards tothat the action moves so fast (because they are trying to cover so much) in the first few episodes it might be hard to feel a connection to the characters, if that was why the reviewer didnt care about the persons. It might scare “new” fans away, maybe WIC could comment on that?

Jim: She’s the only reviewer I’ve heard that’s mentioned feeling no connection to the characters, and judging by how much she cares for the contestants of Dancing with the Stars, I’m not too worried.

Exactly. I have nothing more to say about this.

“Oh, hi Ned! What do you say? You have something to say about it? Ok, let´s hear it! Whait… Put that away! You scare me!”

Abyss: Exactly.I have nothing more to say about this.

“Oh, hi Ned! What do you say? You have something to say about it? Ok, let´s hear it! Whait… Put that away! You scare me!”

Hahahahaha!

sjwenings:
DH87,

BE seems like a fair comparison as to what we could expect from Thrones. I feel like GOT needs to beat BE by season 2 to get that third season, though.

I’m not convinced there will be a third season for BE. And I’m not convinced that, if there is a third season for BE, that will translate into a third season for GOT. They both qualify as high-cost costume dramas. A 5 mill-delivering drama (expensive or no) will be Lombardo’s goal, now that it’s been done once. The audience has been proved to be there for the right product. The suits get the big bucks for finding that product.

DH87: I’m not convinced there will be a third season for BE. And I’m not convinced that, if there is a third season for BE, that will translate into a third season for GOT.

Yeah, thats why i said GOT probably needs to beat BE.

What do you know, Game of Thrones has run into some serious bad luck.

AMC’s “The Killing” is scheduled at the same time, and, unfortunately, happens to be just as mind blowingly awesome for it’s genre as we think Game of Thrones is. It’s also AMC’s 4th series, stacking yet another tick of awesome to Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead. Even though it’s just your basic crime procedural, this one is taking it’s lead from Heroes, Lost, and HBO shows, and making it just one story stretched out over an entire season, turning it into a 10-13 hour miniseries (I’m not sure how many episodes it will be, I only tuned into it because I get AMC east and HBO west), which gives them time to flesh out story lines that usually get compacted for time constraints.

The problem? Crime procedural has a much bigger natural audience than fantasy, so all those people we were hoping would tune into a cross genre might be watching their preferred genre instead.

The good news? HBO counts everyone who views a new show no matter which hour they view it in the first week when issuing their ratings, to my knowledge, so perhaps they’ll tune into the late night rerun, and AMC runs their shows twice in a night, so perhaps everyone will watch both! :)

Lex:
DH87,
They didn’t see it, and didn’t know about it until I told them. So it wasn’t as widely known as Matt’s implying.

I never said a word about it being “widely known”. I said it was intensely marketed and advertised. The fact that TONS of promotion was done for the preview and yet STILL so many avid HBO viewers didn’t even register what was being thrown at them is what has some folks concerned.
Many HBO viewers right here on WiC are admitting that they saw plenty of lead up to the preview… others claimed they saw nothing… I know which group is right because I too saw plenty of promotions of the preview for the 5 or 6 days prior to it airing.
I also know that my father who essentially lives on HBO still doesn’t have a clue what GoT is… so some people simply filter the content out, not caring about the genre or format of the show and thus will NEVER tune in to even give it a chance.

Critical Geek: HBO counts everyone who views a new show no matter which hour they view it in the first week when issuing their ratings,

CG,
I believe HBO counts only one original airing and the one repeat, at 11 PM ET, in its Neilson-reported ratings (although WiC has linked in the past to the HBO ratings mumbo-jumbo).
The AMC show is troubling, but of course basic cable is always going to pull folks who can’t view HBO because they don’t subscribe (aka the “Oprah” factor, as OWN struggles on basic cable, having lost its core broadcast-only support).

The good news is GOT just has to beat whatever else HBO could put in that slot, and it’s clear that many folks with HBO do settle in at 9 PM on Sunday and check out what’s showing. The series has to take it from there.

Yeah, it’s a sad day when reality shows like “Jersey Shore” draw way larger crowds than well-crafted, well-written fiction.

Maybe we need Snookie to make a guest appearance on GOT. Snookie Stark, the long lost family member?

BTW, is The Killing definitely on at the exact same time as GOT? I thought I’d read that we had no direct competition in the same time slot from any of the other three new big shows…

Lex: Maybe we need Snookie to make a guest appearance on GOT.

Normally, you wait for the ratings to actually tank before trying the stunt casting option.

Critical Geek,

According to this, you seem to be counting too many for The Killing:

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/04/05/sunday-cable-ratings-army-wives-kardashians-lead-night-the-killing-the-borgias-breakout-kings-much-more/88403

Franny Bee,

I love your rants.

Must have more Franny Bee rants!

Lex: I checked online, and it looks likes new episodes of the Killing will usually be on at 10pm, whereas Game of Thrones is 9pm. So that’s good…But this is on the west coast, Pacific Standard Time. The website says The Killing: 10pm, 9 Central. Not sure exactly how that works, but maybe the Central time zone is the only place where it will be on at 9?

well, the killing airs at 10/9 central. The Borgias also airs at 10/9 central. But GOT is at 9/8central. So not problem there. Let’s hope

Elena Amici,

Oh, let’s let The Borgias and The Killing kill each other off!

cardus: Has this idiot ever seen a TV show?

Bite thy tongue—this is an HBO subscriber you’re talking about, sir!

Matt O,

Speaking of marketing, has anyone seen anyone from GoT, D&D, GRRM or any of the actors appear on any U.S. talk shows? I haven’t. Today Show? Regis? Leno? Letterman? Kimmel? Connan? The View?

I figured we, if anyone, would know.

Are they going to? Because now would be a good time. Don’t ya think?

DH87,

oh, yesssss
:evil smile:

For those of you hoping that GoT gets Walking Dead #’s you will sorely disappointed. AMC is available in about 90 million homes in the US, HBO has about 29 million subscribers so it is available in roughly 1/3 of the homes that AMC is. Another way to look at this is 720k viewers of an un-advertised promo would pro-rate to 2.1 million viewers if it had the same subscriber base of AMC.

Since GoT can’t use product placement like they did in Sopranos, hard to put a can of Coke in Westeros, HBO will depend of increasing their subscribers so those of you waiting for the show for free on the Web will doom this show. Sign up and pay the monthly fee!

Lex: P>BTW, is The Killing definitely on at the exact same time as GOT? I thought I’d read that we had no direct competition in the same time slot from any of the other three new big shows…

I just looked at the schedule for the show on the AMC website: schedule for The Killing, and future episodes will be on at 10 PM, so it and Game of Thrones shouldn’t be in direct competition for most viewers.

Pythonpete:
For those of you hoping that GoT gets Walking Dead #’s you will sorely disappointed.AMC is available in about 90 million homes in the US, HBO has about 29 million subscribers so it is available in roughly 1/3 of the homes that AMC is.Another way to look at this is 720k viewers of an un-advertised promo would pro-rate to 2.1 million viewers if it had the same subscriber base of AMC.

Since GoT can’t use product placement like they did in Sopranos, hard to put a can of Coke in Westeros, HBO will depend of increasing their subscribers so those of you waiting for the show for free on the Web will doom this show.Sign up and pay the monthly fee!

I wish the monthly fee was cheaper. If it was cheaper through the entire nation. I do believe people would subscribe to HBO.

Chris:
I’m not dissing the author or faulting her for not liking the show, but you are honestly better off not trying to make sense of the meandering logic trail that makes up that article.

A downside of blogging as opposed to having an actual editor. It really did come off like diarrhea of the keyboard.

Mike Chair,

They’re not so pretty in person XD Thanks!

Matt O: I can’t think of many instances where reps of subscriber based programming appear on those types of shows.

Beg to differ a bit, Matt—the TB gang is now pretty regularly on the late night shows—Anna Paquin has done Chelsea Lately and Stephen Moyer has done all of the broadcast shows recently—but of course TB is about to enter its fourth season. The biggest “get” has been Alex Skarsgard, who has refused to do late-night, even though he has been asked regularly and repeatedly since TB’s first season—because he is always filming, usually in Europe—-during breaks and hiatuses from True Blood. Word is that he will be doing all the late-night talks to promote TB this summer (TB premiers June 26 this year). He is a true TV break out star, though, a big Heart Throb, literally and figuratively, and I’ll be surprised if anyone from GOT will merit that kind of attention on the late night circuit. Conan might book GRRM, I suppose.

Wolfheart: I wish the monthly fee was cheaper. If it was cheaper through the entire nation. I do believe people would subscribe to HBO.

You basically just described the supply and demand economic model. Yes, if HBO lowered the price more people would subscribe. But they’d also get less money per each of those people. They have to find the equilibrium point where they make the most money. I’m sure it is something they review constantly. Apparently right now the amount they’d have to lower the price to get you to subscribe would not offset the money they would lose per subscriber from those who already subscribe at the current higher price.

DH87,

Yeah… you chose to totally ignore my point that the only reps who will appear on that type of programming are the actors AFTER the show has become a hit… and then while disagreeing with my point go on to prove it by pointing out less than accomplished actors who became hugely popular AFTER their show became a hit.

You should have simply said “I agree Matt, and can’t wait to see the Stark clan on The View around the time Episode 8 airs” ;)

There’s a very simple fact that most of you are ignoring – that a LOT of people simply don’t WANT to watch a 15 minute preview which is scene-for-scene the beginning of a full episode which will air in 2 weeks.

There are tons of people out there who hate watching movie trailers because it gives too much away and they would rather see the movie knowing as little as possible about it. Now multiply this 3 minute trailer to be a full 15 minutes of a 60 minute episode, and most people would rather skip it and be surprised.

You are all thinking like fans who have been drooling over this for years and of course you want to see every morsel of video and other media you can find. However, most of the public doesn’t. My girlfriend has never read the books and she is really looking forward to this show based on 2-3 trailers she has seen over the past few months. When I told her about the 15 minute preview, she expressed absolutely no desire to see it. She just didn’t want to ruin the experience.

Couple that with the relatively low level of advertisement for this preview, plus not being listed in the channel guide, and I think that 700k is a great number.

TastesLikeTheSea,

lol

No, well yes. But mostly I’m just irritated by the ridiculous elitist mentality being expressed here.
There’s this crazy mix of wanting GoT to be this massively successful, genre perception changing, epic television event…. and also needing to constantly insult the very people we need on board to make that happen… real intelligent strategy.

There’s going to be gore, deception and t!ts. Let’s not kid ourselves here… this is NOT high-brow entertainment. It’s all about the most base attributes of humanity… just keenly written and well directed; not at all the same thing as high-brow.

Matt O:
Gawd… i really wish folks would stop trying to pretend like GoT is some genius epic and that we’re all,as it’s readers, so much more intelligent than “the lowest common denominator” or the “low brow” audience.

Jeeze… yeah, the violence, nudity and intrigue we’re all looking forward to has NEVER been done by any other show or movie before and no other audience could possibly absorb or interpret such complicated content.*massive eyeroll*

Alright, maybe it ain’t Joyce, but by ordinary broadcast standards it’s some seriously complicated shit. I mean good God, something as unbelievably great as The Wire was too much for most people, and GoT has a similarly labyrinthine storyline and cast of characters.

And yes, most of the people posting here are more intelligent than the average tv viewer. Go read some of the comments on these entertainment mags if you don’t believe me.

Matt O: You should have simply said “I agree Matt, and can’t wait to see the Stark clan on The View around the time Episode 8 airs”

Oh.
Listen, I’m posting on three boards simultaneously tonight—(notice my blizzard of postings here in the last hour)—-so quantity is winning out over quality, comprehension-wise.
So, I guess , yeah, I seem to mean that I agree with you. So . . . alrighty then.
Let’s get back to reaming out the snobs who are bashing the great unwashed among the viewers and those who want HBO for $2.00 a month! :)

Amberite:
There’s a very simple fact that most of you are ignoring – that a LOT of people simply don’t WANT to watch a 15 minute preview which is scene-for-scene the beginning of a full episode which will air in 2 weeks.

Good point. Even I resisted it for 24 hours, and all my other ASOIAF friends have chosen not to watch the preview because they don’t want to spoil the first episode.

I think the number of preview watchers is mostly irrelevant. It didn’t even show up on my cable’s guide until the day of, I manually set my DVR to record that time slot on Saturday and I only knew about that because I follow game of thrones news on a daily basis. I think it is safe to say that is not typical of the average HBO subscriber.

On the positive side, I have been following random tweets about Game of Thrones and there have been hundreds over the past 2 days saying they are going to have to get HBO now, and how they are going to buy the books immediately ect after seeing the preview online. The positive comments have far out weighed the bad, and I am sure the online viewers have dwarfed the number who saw it live.

As for that “negative review”, when the worst review so far says the acting, visuals ect is all amazing but she doesn’t care about the characters… It makes me think she was a bit too distracted by following dancing with the stars and/or on the phone/tweeting/instant messaging while watching. Her reasoning is so scatter brained and illogical, that it is hard to take it serious. But in the end even the best reviewed material is going to have some people who don’t like it.

Errr. Not exactly a good sign.

I’m still expecting this to get mediocre ratings and get better to either a solid 2.5 or possibly 3. Its not Boardwalk Empire which even then had a huge boost. It’s not the cultural phenomenon that is True Blood which is popular due to the blood orgies and whatnot rather than the quality of the writing. Nor is it the Walking Dead which aired on AMC which has a much larger base along with some SERIOUS hype everywhere.

Oh and it’s fantasy which is probably the most unpopular genre next to sci-fi.

Jarred Melancon,

Unfortunately, I think you’re right. I know tons of girls who have no interest in GOT, but are obsessed with Walking Dead and True Blood. It comes down to this: zombies and vampires are hugely popular right now, and very easy to understand. This isn’t elitism, it’s just truth.

saluk:
Wolfheart,

He’s kind of right. Each chapter doesn’t end with a “hmm, how the heck did that happen” cliffhanger. Most of the cliffhangers and exciting points are character moments. “He did that???” or “why did that person die!” All of the high points of lost have nothing to do with characters. “What the heck is this hatch thing?” “What did he mean ‘move the island’?” “Where the heck are these people exactly.” So for an ending to NOT answer most of these kinds of questions in a meaningful manner, it’s bound to make people feel cheated. One of the most important rules in writing is the concept of the payoff. And lost didn’t.

GOT has not ended so we cannot critique how well it pays off. We can’t even try. An example of not paying off, would be if the topic of R+L=J never comes up in the text again. It’s just left hanging. How do you think the ASoIaF fanbase would feel if it was simply not addressed? That would be pulling a lost right there.

” doesnt really have a mystery at its core”. Key word Mystery. When in fact George adds character and story info that makes you wonder things, he puts hints or throws us off but he puts them in there. In fact it has a few. The Mystery of Jons mother. The msytery of who the new Azor Ahai is, the prince that was promised. As a few examples. Although since Lindelof is only into the first book. He knows just a little.

Pythonpete:
For those of you hoping that GoT gets Walking Dead #’s you will sorely disappointed.AMC is available in about 90 million homes in the US, HBO has about 29 million subscribers so it is available in roughly 1/3 of the homes that AMC is.Another way to look at this is 720k viewers of an un-advertised promo would pro-rate to 2.1 million viewers if it had the same subscriber base of AMC.

Since GoT can’t use product placement like they did in Sopranos, hard to put a can of Coke in Westeros, HBO will depend of increasing their subscribers so those of you waiting for the show for free on the Web will doom this show.Sign up and pay the monthly fee!

You are right about household numbers. But I disagree about ratings potential. GoT will get 6.2 million viewers for its premiere. You saw it here first folks.

AND YES, EVERYONE SUBSCRIBE!

Lex,

All those shows and ratings everybody is citing above had some strong hook. Boardwalk Empire; Sopranos. Walking Dead; Zombies which are popular due to the whole Monster Craze that is going on right now. True Blood; Monster Craze due to Twilight, sex, more sex, and even more vicious sex.

It just won’t have these ground-breaking ratings that some people expect. I’m sure it’ll get alot of buzz after a couple of episodes though due to the quality. We’re probably looking at True Blood season 1 ratings except maybe a bit higher due to better overall quality. Now if season 2 premiere ratings are mediocre then this show won’t ever take off.

Targaryen Fanboy: lets all tell five NEW people about the show everyday

I have been hyping the show for months now, particularly on Facebook, but also to people I meet, but because of these ratings (and my worry over them), I am about to commence DarkStar shock and awe advertising blitz. I’ve emailed every radio personality on ESPN about the show.
References to True blood, The wire, Flight of the Concords, and Entourage permeate through ESPN’s television and radio broadcasts, and ESPN is pop culture, so I want them to be referencing GoT. Like when Ryan Howard Hits a home run I want Greenberg to say, “The man who passes the sentence, must swing the bat!”

Nick: the current buzz which is certainly more than True Blood was experiencing at this point.

Some of you may not be aware of the tremendous fan base the Southern Vampire Mysteries, on which TB is based, have had over the last l0 years. One out of every seven books sold in the U.S. in 2009 was by SVM author Charlaine Harris. There was plenty of internet buzz, believe me. You perhaps were just not part of it. :)

DH87,

I was actually, I followed it’s production in a similar manner to this one, and there is no way there was the same sort of crazy fan hype. I even remember the half finished pilot leaking months before the premier, and barely anyone caring. The fan base wasn’t substantial before the show, which aired in 2008. So book sales in 2009 are obviously going to be influenced by the success of the show.

Hell, this page didn’t even exist until the show became popular:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Southern_Vampire_Mysteries

Avalanche3319,

I agree completely. That’s not to say I want to label people as stupid or inferior though. It’s as simple as this: stories like Game of Thrones and The Wire (good comparison) require effort to consume. That is to say, the more you put into it the more you get out of it. If you aren’t prepared to get invested it’s just not going to work for you.

I expect that’s what happened with the negative reviewer. Of course she could recognize that the production value, the writing, or the acting was good, but if she’s gone into the show expecting to not like it then, as she said, she just won’t care. Some people are more predisposed towards fantasy I guess. When I read the novels I never questioned the reality of the seasons or the existence of direwolves.

theamberkey,
I would agree with this too. We should respect negative reviews as much as the positive.

Avalanche3319: This is so cool! Is this our first look at some of the sigils, like the Bolton and Umber ones?

I notice under House Lannisters Sworn houses. Lannister has the Florent Fox, buts its called House Prestor. HBO…come on…Ran has a heraldry site…and DnD you KNOW the books.

Avalanche3319,

Wow. The first page I go to (Greyjoy) and they’ve messed up a name. I’m pretty sure, Balon’s brother’s name is Victarion not Victon. Did they actually make such a simple mistake or did they change the name?

Lex: Wow, cool site! But where do you see the Bolton and Umber sigils? I can’t find them.

Click on House Stark family heraldry. Then scroll down when you see the family tree. Below the tree is the sworn houses.

All of them look fine under Starks sworn houses. Except Umber. Chains? No giant? odd. Did the production crew in charge of doing heraldry just not know how to draw a giant? Or a big burly humanoid?

Sorry. The heraldy I hold dear to my heart from this series. Love them all.

Lex,

Scroll to the bottom of the house Stark page and it lists their bannermen.

Just read the history of Roberts rebellion and it gave me chills. Very well written.

Oh my goodness, that interview with Momoa. I officially love him. The tears were coursing down my cheeks!
And I gotta agree with him about horses. Can’t stand the things. Terrified of ‘em, actually.

P.S. I had no plans on watching Conan (never even seen the original movies), but if the sequel involves Jason eating a horse… I’m in.

TC: To be clear, the guide I linked I found on twitter, and I don’t know for certain that it was produced by HBO.In fact based on the URL, my first guess is that it is not.This is further supported by the lack of photos for Tommen and Myrcella as well as Loras Tyrell, Benjen Stark, ect.

As far as the Lost vs Game of Thrones, I hope fans are not flaming on this rivalry to the point that we are driving away Lost fans by insulting the show they love.The “feud” clearly is meant to be light hearted.Great interview with Lindelof here on the topic posted by EW:

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/04/05/thrones-author-lost/

I dont know TC. This seems pretty well done, even with mistakes here and there. It could be official. It looks like it has been worked on for quite some time. I bet HBO was behind this and had this company do it.

Lex:
I like that new site, very professional looking. Only thing I don’t like is the synopsis spoilers (someone should tell them to remove those!) and the couple errors (i.e. Victon Greyjoy). Not blown away by the Umber or Bolton sigils, but no big deal.

Start reading some of the histories, and house information and character information. The mistakes will make you cringe.

Yeah, but if it is official I have to agree that listing all the episode synopsis prior to them airing is a big mistake. Something that would be cool to have updated as the season goes on. But I posted the link minutes after seeing it on twitter, so I didn’t even notice the spoilers til others pointed them out. Perhaps it is official, but not ready to go live as I can’t find a link from HBO’s site to it so far. It would be great to send to new viewers minus the spoilers, but I couldn’t do so in it’s current state without risking ruining the whole story with spoilers.

Great job, whoever made Kate close comments on her blog. Kind of sad. I hope this doesn’t start a trend of fanboys trashing every reviewer who doesn’t say GoT is the best show ever made.

Hi all –

Cogman here.

I’m quite sure this is a prototype leaked early as there are a few clear mistakes and spoilers. Wait until it actually rolls out.

But keep in mind when it does, there are some deliberate changes to the mythology resulting from the adaptation of the show. This site covers THE SHOW’s mythology, not the books.

Thanks,

B

MetalgoddessAMB:
Wolfheart,

I’m getting a feeling that maybe we stumbled upon this before it is actually ready to “go live?”Maybe they’re still working on it? I agree that some of it is too spoilery, so maybe that’s why the URL isn’t a true HBO one just yet, because they’re still tweaking it.

It looks great, and I think something like this is needed for non-readers. But Ned’s Death, that shouldn’t be anywhere where non-readers can find out about beforehand!

The interactivity of the site is amazing. Nicely done. If this is official and someone leaked it or its not “live” yet. I would definitely say there are issues to work out with history and information within the text.

Has anyone taken a look at the images on the backgrounds behind the family trees, and some of the images along with the histories. Pretty cool.

I can honestly say that the wolf in the background finally looks wolf like, that interpretation looks great. Really wish we see that more then the one weve seen. Sad we cant see the head though. And the head you do see is one of their dragon head designs.
http://share.behaviordesign.com/hbo/game-of-thrones/#!/guide/houses/stark/

My inclination is not to worry on the preview ratings front. HBO is apparently already making boatloads of cash selling the rights to European markets. Even if the show is a dog in terms of US ratings, the combination of critical prestige, promise of DVD sales and international viewership could easily make thrones still a winner for HBO.

saluk,

Someone has also brought it to Twitter as well. Nice to see we are represented well… SMH.

Wow, the ‘feud’–the way Lindelof has reacted really shows that he’s more bothered than he says! It isn’t just a, ‘Well, he’s welcome to his opinion;’ it hit a chord, and I think his tongue-in-cheek manner is hiding a deeper disappointment.

Myself, I watched ALL of Lost, because it the first few seasons just drew me in so well. I was hooked. But as it went on…and on…I’m sorry, but it just got weaker and weaker, and more nonsensical.

I have each season’s box set–except the last. On seeing the finale, I knew I’d never watch the show again. :( It was such a cop-out that I can’t bear the thought of ever rewatching from the beginning, exclaiming, ‘Oh, that was so cool! Remember that?’ Because I’ll know that 90% of the fascinating mysteries will come to no conclusion whatsoever. They’ll just be dropped. And that is brutal.

So count me among those massively let down by Lindelof. As a result, I’m kinda just rolling my eyes at him and his personal Twitter feud.

Pertaining the numbers for the preview…despite all the lovely reasoning, I can’t help but feel a little apprehensive. Despite all the reassurances…truly, only time will tell. And that’s freaky.

Pretty funny that we discovered this before it was released, and that Cogman responded so quickly!

So incidentally, has anyone spotted one of these possible mythology changes? Haven’t read through all the histories yet…

kerning,

In the EW article Lindelof sounds less angry, more joking around… but also sounds pretty hurt and disappointed. I actually feel bad for him, even though I hated the finale. Oh well, lesson learned I guess?

kerning:
Wow, the ‘feud’–the way Lindelof has reacted really shows that he’s more bothered than he says! It isn’t just a, ‘Well, he’s welcome to his opinion;’ it hit a chord, and I think his tongue-in-cheek manner is hiding a deeper disappointment.

Myself, I watched ALL of Lost, because it the first few seasons just drew me in so well. I was hooked. But as it went on…and on…I’m sorry, but it just got weaker and weaker, and more nonsensical.

I have each season’s box set–except the last. On seeing the finale, I knew I’d never watch the show again. It was such a cop-out that I can’t bear the thought of ever rewatching from the beginning, exclaiming, ‘Oh, that was so cool! Remember that?’ Because I’ll know that 90% of the fascinating mysteries will come to no conclusion whatsoever. They’ll just be dropped. And that is brutal.

So count me among those massively let down by Lindelof. As a result, I’m kinda just rolling my eyes at him and his personal Twitter feud.

I think Martin’s comments did hurt him, but also the tone of the twitter “feud” is lost. It sounded personal on twitter out of context but the EW interview really paints the comments all in a different picture:

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/04/05/thrones-author-lost/

This quote in particular about Martin and his books:

I’m actually a massive fan of his. I’ve only just begun Game of Thrones, because over the time that we were working on Lost, I didn’t read any books. I’ve spent the last year basically catching up on all the amazing television that I missed, like Battlestar Galactica, The Wire, Breaking Bad. I’ve just completely marathoned those shows. I was about 300 pages into Game of Thrones when this started. I was lying in bed last night with my iPad ready to continue sort of quietly seething at how much I love it. The stuff of his that I grew up on was this series that he wrote/edited called Wild Cards. My dad and I used to read it. It was sci-fi superhero mash-up, where these aliens release this virus into the atmosphere around the period of World War II and humans have one of three reactions. One is nothing happens. One is they become horrible deformed, and they call those people Jokers. And the other is they get superpowers, and they call those people Aces. And it’s sort of like this huge sprawling multi-character [story].

pualo:
Shorter Kate O’Hare: I don’t like GoT because it’s not cliched enough.

I didn’t get that out of her review. She just seemed to list problems she has with the fantasy genre (e.g. unrealistic world building, magic & mcguffins creating arbitrary and cheap plot points).
However, the realism of Westeros and the author’s commitment to keeping magic in the fringes of the story are the the biggest strengths of asoiaf! This is what sets asoiaf apart from generic “fantasy”.
I haven’t seen the show, but reports are that it is very faithful to the books. That being the case, I have to assume that the author of the review came into it with her mind already made up and didnt care to give the show a real shot. The lack of virtually any discussion of specifics about the show (beyond who’s cute and horses are pretty) reinforces my suspicion.

Lex and TC,

Having read the interview now, I’m more inclined to feel he’s joking around. At the same time, it could be him sorta checking the hostility now that it’s got an interview! Who knows.

I guess I do feel a little sorry for Lindelof, but at the same time, I’m more the type willing to acknowledge a job not well done, hope to improve in future, and move on rather than kinda lash out, even if half-heartedly.

I don’t think Martin CAN pull a Lost. I may sound optimistic, yet I feel the story is more controlled. There aren’t a thousand mysteries, but rather a strong overall arc and a few other plots soon to converge. It’s more about character development and the power struggle between differing factions and ideas vs. loopy time travel and weird mythology and logic.

B Cogman,

Thanks Bryan, you’re the man! Never underestimate our abilities to track down anything and everything online, possibly even before it exists! :)

I wonder if the spoilerific content in the chapter breakdowns on the map page will be removed and will be available once each episode is aired.

Also, “It is in his quarters that Jon Snow spots and dispatches a White Walker”??? Isn’t that supposed to be a zombie? Do you think they changed that? If they did, I don’t think I like this particular change…

Lex,

Then how would you explain the little girl in the prologue?

Except some mistakes, I really like the new viewer’s guide. I especially liked the piece about Robert’s rebellion (at the moment I think you can only get there through Ned’s profile). The guide gives lots of information in an accessible and user friendly way. Plus, I think it is partially aimed to solve some of the problems that were brought up by fans about the lack of sense of history.

Re: maps and episode guide.

Spoilers aside – tsk, tsk – we also get to see a tiny rendering of how both the Eirye and the Twins will look on screen – pretty interesting designs, from the little we can see.
Also, very cool title for episodes 9 and 10! :D Glad to see a fan favourite ended up as the finale title!

Dom,

I wish Baelor was called Baelor’s Sept or something like that. The one name title seems odd, like it’s referring to Baelor the person.

Mormegil: http://www.spoilertv.com/2011/04/game-of-thrones-may-episode-summaries.html

Thanks! I haven’t quite worked out how much of anything constitutes a spoiler when you know the book backwards, but I was dying to know what was so exciting about those eps. I should have guessed Ep.6 though!

Lex,

I think it is: the steps of the sept of Baelor.

Lars:
Awesome – the first “official” map that covers the free cities on the other side of the narrow sea!

http://share.behaviordesign.com/hbo/game-of-thrones/#!/map/

Seems to me that Dany could just take her army and her dragons and go island jumping all the way to Dorne, not at all how i pictured the location of Essos, but I must not have been paying attention:P

A ha I love how the map moves to show the areas involved for the episode summary you’re viewing! Great idea!

Basileus777: The description of summerhall on the map of that guide is interesting.

Info straight from the book I believe (or certainly stuff GRRM himself has said if not from the book).

When it comes to the number of viewers and keeping the show running for several seasons I’m quite sure the international interest will play a part as well. Right now it seems that Game of Thrones will actually become HBO’s biggest seller on the international market, even surpassing Boardwalk Empire which is sold to 160 countries.

A comment from HBO sales prexy from a piece in Variety:

Bidding wars broke out among European webs determined to licence the show… Schreger, said, “We knew we had a pair of hot properties in ‘Boardwalk Empire’ and ‘Game of Thrones,’ but buyers’ interest in ‘Thrones’ is phenomenal.”

Tabletop,

It’s U.S. only. HBO cannot legally sell programming to people outside of the U.S. as they would then directly compete with the foreign networks they’re selling their programming to.

LG: If anyone feels so inclined, it’d be nice to see some GRRM fans sticking up for him in the comments area of the EW piece. The Losties are bashing him hard, most choosing to ignore the fact that he stated he was a fan of Lost…sigh.

From the amount of complaints that have been made by Lost Fans about the Finale I would have thought the majority of Lost Fans would be agreeing with GRRM.

Mormegil: From the amount of complaints that have been made by Lost Fans about the Finale I would have thought the majority of Lost Fans would be agreeing with GRRM.

As a Lost fan, I can tell you that the series finale broke the fanbase in two: those who love it, and those who hate it. Personally, it worked pretty good for me, but I can clearly see why many hate it.
And, Lindelof was clearly responding toungue-in-cheek, he made many similar statements while working on Lost – he may be upset for the use of “pull a Lost”, but he is clearly not angry.

Franny Bee:
The “Lost” ending seems to be a variation on ‘and it was all just a dream’. Remember writing stories in grade 4, and you could write whatever horrors/fantasies/madness you wanted because the last five words were going to be “and then I woke up”…? Yeah? That’s called ‘pulling a Lost’ now.

I’m sorry, but how does the Lost ending qualify as “it was all a dream”? O__o

Franny Bee,
I know the trope – I only wanted you to notice that while Lost did end with a highly-debated ending, it definitely did not ended with a variation of “it was all a dream”, since every event in the series actually happened! ;)
The purpose of the final scene in the church was not to reveal to the audience that the character were dead all along and in some kind of purgatory, quite the contrary. Those characters actually survived the crash, lived every event we’ve witnessed in six years of show, and died – some during the show, others long after its conclusion – only to find themselves in a “mid-place” where they could face their personal issues one last time, before “moving on” all together.
So, I really don’t understand why “it turned out to be ‘not real’ “…!

I, too, enjoy the debate :D

Franny Bee,
New ideas for upping the ratings of GoT: Run these shows on Wednesday or Thursday, to draw interest up for the Sunday show.

“Water-Dancing with the Stars” – Miltos brings along some friends, and they each pair up with a star, and prepare a water-dance sequence for the week. Judges are Mark Hamill, Kiera Knightly and Danny McBride.
Quote of the week from Mark “Hey Kingslayer, you should try to be a bit more like Arya, you know, using your right and your left hand, cause, you never know.”

“Westeros Idol” – All the characters have a sing off, using a song from Westeros and a song from the theme of the week. Judges are Rebecca Black, Justin Bieber and John Bradley-West. This will be mainly for the enjoyment of reading JBW’s explosive Twitter feed when he has to sit in between Black and Bieber.

And lastly, a Zombie show – “Oh my Freakin’ Gawd we’ve got ZOMBIES, I tell, you, ZOMBIES! And they are made by White Walkers instead of a plague virus or Evil Company experiment gone wrong – so there is NO STOPPING THEM! Because they just keep White Walking Along!”
Starring Keifer Sutherland who reprises his father’s famous role, and points open-mouthed at the White Walkers going ‘screeee’! in a voice that sounds like cracking ice..

EW covering the Damon-GRRM feud. I didn’t see the link posted, but I apologize if anyone did post it and I missed it: http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/04/05/thrones-author-lost/

I LOVE THIS. I think it’s all in good fun, really. I loved Lost and I love Damon and Carlton. I used to listen to their podcasts each week and they are funny! Based on the sense of humor Damon seems to have, I can’t imagine this feud is serious. Maybe it’s a teeny tiny bit serious, but I think it’s mainly all in good fun.

I was a huge Lost fan and to be honest, I liked its ending when it aired and I still stand by it. They weren’t dead the whole time! The ending may have had its cheesy moments (the table of artifacts from multiple religions, the light, “Christian Shepherd” being well…a Christian shepherd). But what I did like about it was that the message of the series was very strong: No matter what you do, whether you go off into some magical land, whether you go back in time, etc. etc., you can’t change your past; you need to accept it and learn from it. And also, Lost was fantastic with its characters – it gave you a wide range of personas and really made you care about them. Just like GRRM does!

Anyhow, one reporter said something about how watching this feud is like watching your parents fight. It’s true! :D

OT
Another news snippet from Hungary:
Just read a press release of HBO Hungary, in which they announce that Thrones will air here with free availability (don’t know how that’s called coherently:)) on the 18th, which is unprecedented for any HBO show here! Seeing how synchronised the Central European HBO’s seem to be working regarding GoT, it’s possible the others will do this as well… Any news you can dig out on that front Rabbit? :) Here’s the source.

wow just reading Kate OHares blog. pretty piss poor attitude from commenter’s, are people gonna do this everytime someone comments negatively on the series. hope not. it will probably end up getting peoples backs up and reflects pretty poorly on the fans who do enjoy the series.

vajlégy,

Hmm. I do not thin that I understand what free availability means exactly in terms of HBO subscription?

DavidG:
wow just reading Kate OHares blog. pretty piss poor attitude from commenter’s, are people gonna do this everytime someone comments negatively on the series. hope not. it will probably end up getting peoples backs up and reflects pretty poorly on the fans who do enjoy the series.

I’m afraid this is still the internet, and some people just go mental because of the lack of repercussions that comes along with being anonymous. Fortunately you see very little of those people on this website, but I’m afraid you will see more of them once GoT airs and – inevitably – receives some critique from reviewers.

on the whole GrrM and Lost thing. Being a big Lost fan I still wasn’t annoyed by his comment, because ya know, everyone has an opinion and that’s ok. Though I will say that I don’t agree with him. I think some of the mysteries were meant to intrigue and never was intended to be answered. I personally was fine with that, but what was concluded in the end I was really pleased with, it was a good way to wrap up all the emotional ties with the characters and everything in a very interesting way. Could the ending have been better, maybe but I was still very satisfied with it

The_Rabbit01,

Well what I meant was that it will come uncoded. If you have a provider (?) with different channels, but you do NOT pay for HBO specifically, it will be available for you in the timeslot of 21:54 to 23:05 without the subscription.

Hear me Roar:

You live in The Netherlands as well, right? Don’t you find it frustrating that there’s – apparently – no way to subscribe to HBO?

I really don’t want to download GoT illegally, but the wait-for-the-S1-bluray alternative isn’t really attractive as well…

Zack,

ya I was one of the ones that understood the ending of Lost right away. I had to explain it to everyone I know though. I don’t think anyone else I know understood it until I told them. It was also confirmed on the internet what it all meant

vajlégy,

I see :)
Understand now.
I ll see what can I do…

BlueCanary,

Ya I kinda have to agree with you, not to hate on anyone or anything but shows like True Blood and Walking Dead are just fun shows to watch. I think it would be a little strange if every show on tv had to be intellectual and enlightened. I mean can’t you just have a bit of simple fun when watching a show. And about the review I know it can be annoying when someone is trashing something you care about but I think we should respectfully disagree instead of treating them like their stupid

LG:
If anyone feels so inclined, it’d be nice to see some GRRM fans sticking up for him in the comments area of the EW piece. The Losties are bashing him hard, most choosing to ignore the fact that he stated he was a fan of Lost…sigh.

I don’t know, I’ve read through all 11 pages of comments, and it seems like the vast majority agree with GRRM. Quick rough estimate is that about 80% or more of the comments are saying the LOST finale sucked.

B Cogman:
Wolfheart,

Again, some of these are errors. This is a work in progress, hasn’t been vetted 100% and wasn’t meant to be seen yet.

Thanks,

B

So I was correct when I said we stumbled upon it before it was ready!

Bryan, it looks wonderful, really awesome. I can’t wait to see the finished, corrected product. I do think it’s really important to have something like this.

But please, I’m begging you, Try to word Ned’s Death some other way so people don’t find out about before hand. I know it’s something you can find on the internet if you look for it, but a lot of (non-reader) viewers might only seek out an official HBO outlet to find more information, and I think it’s important to keep some kind of suspense to the story.

Maybe wording like after the Stark family tragedy at King’s Landing…because then you’ll know something bad is going to happen, but not just what it is.

Winter Is Coming,

have you seen the direwolf scene on hbo on demand?

Lex: I don’t know, I’ve read through all 11 pages of comments, and it seems like the vast majority agree with GRRM. Quick rough estimate is that about 80% or more of the comments are saying the LOST finale sucked.

I gave up after 3 pages.

I did find it amusing that someone asked what the ending to the UK life on Mars was which really was if you include Ashes to Ashes a They’re all dead really ending.

Does anybody know what’s going on with the Westeros.org asoiaf forums? All I’m getting is a blank page today?

Dante,

I’m getting the same don’t know what is going on.

Lina,

Hey now, I love DWTS too – but then again, I’m definitely not a “fantasy” reader, more of a classical literature person. However, DWTS and ASOIAF both appeal to me despite not being a fanatic about reality shows or fantasy. Some stuff just transcends genre, which is how I’ve gotten so many people to both watch DWTS (seriously, it’s so good and funny and I love seeing people that are normally so guarded come to life – never would have thought I’d love DWTS so much) and read ASOIAF (have been reading the books since 97 and I’d say I’m in the superfan category).

But overall, I understand what you were getting at. But one reviewer out of ten isn’t going to like it – heck, there are people that pan even the best of films and literature, just to be contrariarn or because they sincerely didn’t like it. I guess fans shouldn’t get so worked up over one person when you have ten saying it’s one of the best shows they’ve seen in a while. Plus her review may change as the season progresses.

I do think she overreacted about the commentary though. Those are REALLY tame compared to shit I see elsewhere. All I have to do is look at any comments on a Yahoo news story just to lose a little faith in humanity.

Not sure if this was mentioned before. Tonight at 10:00 pm (EST) on HBO there is a 30 minute “Making of Games of Thrones”

MUGger,

We might get some ASOIAF hate from the political right-wing as well since GRRM is an un-abashed liberal in his not-a-blog postings. Knowing that they may assume that GOT is a secret vessel for spreading “liberul lyes!!”… More evidence of their un-swayable belief in a left-wing HBO-spread conspiracy, or some sort of similar nonsense. Andrew B and his Breitbart.com site is strongly right-wing political. Even its entertainment pages are politically slanted. So if someone on there, foxnews.com, Sara P, Glenn B, or the like posts a negative view of the show I wouldn’t be lose any sleep over it.

(First time poster, somewhat long time reader). The thing that bothers me the most about the review, is the suggestion that since direwolves are real, the show is at fault for not including other similar animals also from the real world.

“Game of Thrones” has dire wolves. Now, dire wolf sounds cool, which is maybe why the author used the term, but they’re real, and they only existed in North and South America during the Pleistocene Epoch. Is this North America during the Pleistocene? If so, where are the giant sloths, mammoths and American lions?

The real kicker is THERE ARE MAMMOTHS but you just don’t see them until later books. So apparently, the show producers are required by this logic to make sure that we get to see every kind of real animal that existed alongside direwolves to satisfy this writer? That’s just nonsensical.

Most of the rest of the review I don’t have a problem with. It didn’t grab her, and that’s fine. No need to be snotty or mean or point out why her viewpoint sucks; the show is not going to be for everyone, and it’s not for her. What’s the big deal?

James Brookes:
(First time poster, somewhat long time reader).The thing that bothers me the most about the review, is the suggestion that since direwolves are real, the show is at fault for not including other similar animals also from the real world.

There’s a mammoth in “Lord of the Rings” as well (at least that’s what I assume the “olyphaunt” is and what it looked like onscreen); does that mean that JRR Tolkien/Peter Jackson erred in not including any sabre-toothed tigers or direwolves? Heh! I really felt that that review was basically about how the author doesn’t like fantasy, and in the face of being unable to critique the show for its production values or acting, that kind of more or less irrelevant criticism of the genre is the fallback position.

What’s annoying me is that someone who clearly didn’t want it got the task of reviewing the show (and she has the first six episodes! *cries*)

Regarding the comments, I’ve noticed this trend of attacking people who didn’t love what you love all over the internet. I’m a member of Goodreads, and the responses from people who object to neutral or bad reviews of popular books are sort of jaw-dropping. It’s one person’s opinion, no need to get hateful about it.

Again on the LOST ending:

Luke likely:

ya I was one of the ones that understood the ending of Lost right away. I had to explain it to everyone I know though. I don’t think anyone else I know understood it until I told them. It was also confirmed on the internet what it all meant

Same here. To this day, I still can’t understand how people could not (and still can’t) get the line “Yeah, I’m real. You’re real, everything that’s ever happened to you is real.”…I mean, how can you be more explicit than that?

purplejilly,

LOVE “Water-Dancing with the Stars”!!

I would totally call in, even with the tolls. Miltos FTW!!

(lol at the ambidextrous quip – you saucy minx!)

Dom,

The fact that they had to be so explicit on that point says a lot about the quality of the writing.

Mike O,

Oh, no doubt. A lot of the people commenting on (and raving about) the Grin series of posts (on Tolkein) are unabashed Terry Goodkind fans, for goodness’ sake. They probably already think that HBO is a den of sin and decadence, and won’t subscribe to get the GoT series.

That is not to say, however, that their perception of GRRM lacks merit. In 2006, when I read the Cersie chapters in aFfC, I instantly recognized the decision-making processes of the leader of the free world at the time. ; )

OMG guys, we’re all worrying about LOST, just as Littlefinger planned… O_o

D.D.: t one comment got the show more attention than anything else I’ve seen – from previews to interviews to reviews. And, no, I wouldn’t care if some portion of the Losties have taken some kind of blood-oath against GOT. Raising the show awareness will bring in more initi

I didn’t read the comments that were deleted, but let’s not sugar-coat things for Ms. O’Hare. If the only thing she cares about on TV right now is Dancing with the Stars? Then, in one stroke she proves that:

1) She represents everything that it wrong with Network television in the 21st Century;
2) A Game of Thrones was never intended to appeal to her or the demographic of which she is part and the programs which natrually appeal to those sorts of viewers; and
3) She has tastes in television which reveal her to be an intellectual light-weight.

Note: the fact that she my or may not like GoT has nothing to do with her coming off as an idiot. You can hate GoT and have your mensa card stamped and dues fully paid up. However, her professed interest and emotional investment in something as banal as Dancing with the Stars is pretty damning evidence.

She’s in good company. There are millions of people who “care” about DWTS.

When you stop and think about it, this should not surprise us. When, by definition, one-half of all Americans are dumber-than-the-average-American? That explains the phenomenon of reality TV and the success of DWTS rather succinctly.

Steel_Wind,

Your logic is just about as poor as hers is. Just because she doesn’t like GOT, has different tastes in television, and likes DWTS does not make her dumb or an intellectual lightweight.

Not everyone is looking for the same things out of the TV they watch. I’m sure there are plenty of brilliant people that want to come home from work and watch something mindless and not too involved.

It was a poorly written and hard-to-follow blog post, but I don’t see why so many people feel the need to attack her for writing it.

MetalgoddessAMB,

It won’t be worded at all, I assure you.

This was leaked material that hadn’t been vetted by me yet.

Many thanks,

B

B Cogman:
MetalgoddessAMB,

It won’t be worded at all, I assure you.

This was leaked material that hadn’t been vetted by me yet.

Many thanks,

B

whew! Thanks Bryan. I kind of thought that was the case, as I mentioned that in a post right above your first post here about it.

So, do you have the leakers head on a spike yet??? hehehe

I want to say again though, it looks awesome and I agree there needs to be something like this.

I’ve seen the past 4 seasons of DWTS.

The bad: It’s reality TV, which I will compare to snacks or sweets. A little is ok, but it is junk and too much will kill you.

The good: The dancers are phenomenal, so anyone who can appreciate the art of dance, has something worthwhile there. Also you get a good sense of the behind the scenes, chiefly all the work and pain and hours it takes to learn, then come out and dance for a minute and a half.
The “stars” we are familiar with and they keep the spectrum wide, from athletes, to politicians, or American icons, to Disney stars, reality stars etc…and just like GoT as we get to know them, go along on their journey with them, they get whacked.
They have artists performing songs every week, Broadway acts performing routines, and professional dancers putting on shows. So Its not just reality, but for anyone who appreciates the arts, there is something there.
Brooke Burke is beautiful.

Critical Geek:

Taking down a blog instead of defending one’s review reinforces its bogusness. Anyone who can’t ignore flamage and respond to legit rebuttals has no business putting their opinions on the net. If you are getting flamed, you are getting rebuttals and publicity and controversy. These are supposed to be a good things in media.

I don’t think it’s fair to judge her when we don’t now how bad the posts that she deleted were. And don’t forget that this was probably just ‘another’ TV Show for her, so I can imagine not wanting to debate her opinion on GoT with a bunch of rabid fans. Not everyone is as invested in GoT as we are.

OT, but, funny story:

I just went downstairs to eat lunch and found my brother, who has expressed zero interest in GoT whatsoever despite my encouragings, watching the 14-minute preview. Bearing in mind that I didn’t even mention the preview to him; he had to have just found it on the PVR on his own and decided to watch it. After finishing it, he says he’s getting excited for the series.
Number of converts +1 :)

Also I think the reason Kate’s review got such a huge flame response here is because none of us (other than the chosen reviewers) have gotten the chance to see the episodes ourselves yet, and we are SOOOO hyper-sensitive to any criticism, because we’re still panicked inside with the questions of:
“How good is it?”
“Will in draw in the non-book fan?”
“Will we be getting Season Two and beyond?”
So as soon as we see something negative, we are freaking out.
I am thinking that in eaxctly 10 hours, 05 minutes and 58 seconds from now, we won’t be worried about her review as much.

Steel_Wind: I didn’t read the comments that were deleted, but let’s not sugar-coat things for Ms. O’Hare. If the only thing she cares about on TV right now is Dancing with the Stars? Then, in one stroke she proves that:

1) She represents everything that it wrong with Network television in the 21st Century;
2) A Game of Thrones was never intended to appeal to her or the demographic of which she is part and the programs which natrually appeal to those sorts of viewers; and
3) She has tastes in television which reveal her to be an intellectual light-weight.

Note: the fact that she my or may not like GoT has nothing to do with her coming off as an idiot. You can hate GoT and have your mensa card stamped and dues fully paid up. However, her professed interest and emotional investment in something as banalas Dancing with the Stars is pretty damning evidence.

Will you please step down from your high as well as imaginary horse?

For the Canadians here…HBO Canada will be showing tonight’ Making Of video at 10pm et

coltaine777,

Woot! Thanks :)

Lina: “The erratic weather is a big plot point — “Winter is coming” is constantly intoned — but this planetary irregularity is not explained.”

Oh, that Kate O’Hare — she’s a clever one. I mean, to apply that Clarence Darrow Scopes trial logic to fantasy fiction. How would she cross-examine Mr. Martin? “Mr. Martin, for a summer to last 10 years the planet would have to stop orbiting the sun? … Have you ever pondered what would happen if a planet stood still? … Don’t you know it would have been converted in a molten mass of matter?” *

Maybe she’ll go after the Bible next.

* State of Tennessee v. Scopes, transcript of Clarence Darrow’s cross-examination of William Jennings Bryan (1925) http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/day7.htm

BlueCanary:
And I may just be irritated with the comment that said, ‘I know plenty of GIRLS who watch True Blood and The Walking Dead who wouldn’t care about Game of Thrones” with the implication that women, with their delicate lady-brains, only care about what’s “cool” and not what’s good. Bleh.

Well, since you are referencing my comment I’ll respond to you. I was simply stating a fact: in MY personal experience, I DO know many girls who love zombies and vampires, but have told me specifically that they’re not interested in shows like Game of Thrones. It was not smug superiority, it was an accurate statement of my personal experience. Anything else you read into it is coming from your own subjectivity.

Man, if I had a blog, I would devote about 5 unfocused minutes writing a not-very-good article saying negative things about GoT. She probably got more attention from that post than anything else she’s written.

Sorry if my “elitist” high-brow comments concerning the relative merits of reality television and Dancing with the Stars are off-putting to some posters here. Too bad. I’m not going to apologize for despising crappy television.

Moreover, those “elitist” comments are rational, on-point and strongly grounded in the evidence.

If you are a TV critic who admits she only “cares” about something as banal and superficial as Dancing With the Stars – you should fully expect to be called on your lack of intellectual depth and good taste. Being a consumer of that opiate of the masses does not exempt you from criticism; rather, it invites it.

If you happen to be a poster here with a similar taste and admit to being a fan of such low-brow programming? I offer no apologies if you take umbrage when you are caught in that crossfire. You ought to have known that would happen the moment you posted such an admission onto a website such as this one, right?

Steel_Wind,

What “evidence” do you have that ALL DTWS viewers are “intellectual lightweights?”

I happen know many Intellectual types who look down upon my love of fantasy as being banal and intellectually stunted. So It can go both ways.

I’m not sticking up for that woman who wrote that awful blog, but I do take umbrage at your questioning of my intelligence, just because I like to watch something for pure entertainment and enjoyment.

I review video games, and I often have to review games from genres that I hate.

But I compare the game to comparable games in the same genre; I didn’t pan DC Universe Online because I prefer Battlefield, for example.

saluk,

Well, about feeling for characters, I myself have watched six episodes of Boardwalk empire and I can’t really say I sympatize that much with of feel for any of those characters. But Cate O’Hare does, it seems. The question is however: should the BE producers be really worried about how well the show will fare in the nextcoming season because I am not that in to the show? Of course not, I’m just one person after all. If four out of five viewers like what they see and sympathize with the characters, then there is nothing to worry about. What I’m trying to say is that O’Hare is just one critic, and so far most (four out of five perhaps?) of her colleagues seem to disagree. They like the story and several of the characters…. I’m not that worried.

Bobben,

Yeah, I’m not that worried either. Just trying to gleam whatever information I can out of what is out there :) I mean, O’hare has seen 4 episodes, and I’ve only seen 15 minutes! It’s not fair! Can’t wait to judge it on it’s own terms instead of through other people’s filters.

Looks like most service providers are going to have a free HBO week from the 15th to 18th. Dish, DirecTV, and Verizon are on board so far, and I would expect others to have the free weekend as well, just as it was for Boardwalk Empire’s premiere. HBO is hoping on the fact that the 1st episode will convince viewers to subscribe.

Also, I believe that the premiere of BE was 4.8 (?) – I would be disappointed (and I’m sure HBO would as well) if it came in at less than 5.0

fake-o name-o,

Thats the point many have, if you are going to review anything; tv show, book, music, etc. do your research, thats college 101, just about any course at that, excluding basket weaving. For someone to write a review and then damn that part of the show for having direwolves and not other creatures from the same geological time period, even though these other creatures exist in the world of Westeros, shows the bitch didn’t do the mandatory research required.
I have no problem with her liking DWtS, or any other show for that matter, or disliking. But please; if you want to give a official review or discussion on a particular show, topic, political policy or just how to properly use cow chips for baking, will you at least perform the adequate amount of research so you don’t make yourself look like an donkey.
I have gotten too emotional at times and came off seeming like an ass, and thats because I didn’t inhale, and so did improper research. To me her review came of unintelligble and emotional, I for one believe her apathy towards fantasy caused her to shut of any ability she might have had to connect with the characters and thus she never gave herself the chance to care for any of them.

I don’t think it matters in the slightest how many people watch the premier.

I think we only need to get over three hurdles:

a) after the first one or two episodes, there has to NOT be a massive panning of the show by either critics or fans. Better to start small and grow than get a big audience for the premier that then decides not to watch episode 2: there’s more chance of converting those who don’t watch at first than those who watch and don’t like it. If there’s not a big backlash, I think they’ll almost certainly greenlight Season 2. [Just look at HBO's history - almost everything has been given at least two seasons.] I think that’s a pretty good bet;

b) by the END of Season 1, we have to show the show isn’t a massive money-loser. A solid viewership that doesn’t look to be going anywhere (and hopefully is still growing), good enough critical reaction that it looks like the critics are going to keep it in people’s radar, and confidence that the fans are devoted enough to buy boxsets and merchandise. If this happens, I would think that they’d greenlight Season 3 – or at least not declare Season 2 the last before it’s even begun. I think we’ve got a good shot, although it’s not certain;

c) by early on in Season 2 (if S3 isn’t greenlighted in advance) or by the end of Season 2 (if it is), THEN the show needs to be getting big numbers, critical raves, or obsessive fan merchandise-buying. I don’t know if this will happen, but if it does I would expect them to see it through to the end, assuming GRRM writes a conclusion in time, it’s one HBO can live with, and there’s no fuckup along the way (contract negotiations, etc).

Shows don’t tend to become massive 7-season blockbusters overnight – particularly a complicated continuous-plot genre show like this one. People hear about how good it is, buy the boxset to catch up and THEN start watching the next season. It’s the pickup in numbers before and during Season 2 that will make or break the series, I think, not the initial viewer numbers – particularly on a subscription channel. Carnivale had good figures for the first season, after all – it was the second season that killed it.

[Then again, John from Cincinnati had numbers just as good as Carnivale, but didn't get a second season. Showing, I suppose, that critics are as important as viewers for HBO]

Guys and gals, I think we need to just take a breath. Hopefully the show will be amazing in it’s own right just as the books are. I font think one bad review after the person saw 4 episodes is anything to worry about in comparison with many good reviews from people who have seen the first six. With regard to viewership I think we all know fantasy has an uphill battle when compared to other genres. I think if the show is as good as we think it is it will draw more people to it as the word spreads. We should keep in mind non-readers might come along more slowly since it’s not something they already know about. I noticed just while looking on YouTube that themost popular thrones trailers have been viewed less than half as much as the trailer for Camelot. I think this is is due to the familiarity of the king Arthur mythology. The only thing we can control is actually paying for hbo and spreading the word if we want our lovely story to continue to unfold on tv.

Jason,

Game of Thrones has way more views than Camelot on youtube. The difference is Game of Thrones has tons of trailers on youtube and many of them have hundreds of thousands of views. The reason that 1 Camelot trailer has 4million views is because Starz paid youtube to have it as a featured video for a day and was promoted all over youtube.

MetalgoddessAMB,

My wife loves Dancing with the Stars. She studied the Great Books program in college and got her Masters in Philosophy and Religion. So there’s my anecdotal support of DwtS and its intellectual admirers.

Me, I can’t stand the show. Although there is a lot of good booty on display.

Steven Swanson,
My Mother in Law is deaf, and loves dancing with the stars. She can’t hear the music, of course, but she loves watching the elaborate costumes, the swaying with beautiful rythym and motion, which deaf people can still understand, enjoy and copy, even without music. It lets her participate in modern culture with her friends and children and grandchildren. She likes American Idol too, to a much lesser degree – not being able to hear the voices, she’ll just watch my husband , my daughter and myself and we give her a thumbs up or down rating for each performance. Once she told me “I wish I could hear ‘pitchy’ and understand it – and I told her, “NO! You are much better off missing the ‘pitchyness’. Heh
She’s not an intellectual, but I would argue that nonetheless, this show does an important service for her, making her feel connected to modern life and culture, and things her children and grandchildren like. In the old days, there were no captions, and she REALLY was stuck in isolation those days. SO just because something doesn’t fulfill an intellectual gap, doesn’t mean it can’t have beauty, meaning, and be worthwhile in society.

Adrian: I’d be more pleased in fact if things went the exact opposite, with the disappointing numbers coming at the beginning and steadily growing into something massive, as opposed to BE which saw its audience cut in half from the pilot to the second episode, if I recall

Yes, that is what happened. And Sunday Night Football had its best season ever on broadcast TV opposite BE, pulling many Neilson viewers away who might otherwise have tried the series. BE had the huge lead in from True Blood in its timeslot, too, and it benefited from that. Those who tried BE based on the hype and found the series not compelling enough drifted away pretty much right away. The spring 9:00 Sunday slot is typically a good one—before summer takes folks to the shore or the mountains (it’s no coincidence that May is a major sweeps month)—but GOT is getting a terrible lead in in Mildred Pierce: terrible ratings and terrible demographics.
I think Wastrel’s assessment down thread is probably best of all possible scenarios, short of some cataclysmic hit out of the park. Part of the reason I don’t think the latter is possible is the utter lack of marquee stars (I know I’ve said this ten times, but take away the male eye candy of TB and you have a jokey, campy, bloated vampire story pulling a 2.0).

Hear Me Roar,
Thank You : )