HBO has cancelled After the Thrones, its post-show recap program created by Bill Simmons, who also runs the website The Ringer. After the Thrones was previously shown on HBO Now, HBO Go and HBO on Demand.
Although criticized for being too superficial and fluffy, the lighthearted program was popular with casual fans who were not steeped in the dense storylines, genealogies and histories of George R. R. Martin’s sprawling universe. If you’re a fan of the show, don’t despair. According to Variety, Simmons cut a deal with Twitter to launch a retooled version called Talk to the Thrones. It will air live on Twitter @ringer and Periscope after the closing credits of each episode of Season 7.
Naturally, The Ringer announced the new deal through its Twitter account, and confirmed that original hosts Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan will return as the hosts. One advantage to this move move is that watching the show will no longer require an HBO subscription of any kind. All Thrones fans can now watch the show for free.
This move is consistent with Twitter’s focus on expanding into the realm of producing live video. Twitter has also cut deals to live stream Major League Baseball games (they lost an NFL Thursday Night Football package to Amazon), WNBA games, Buzzfeed, Viacom, Live Nation, the PGA and more.
h/t Deadline