HBO’s Game of Thrones returned Sunday night to its most-watched episode ever.

The third season premiere delivered 4.4 million viewers for its premiere at 9 p.m. and racked up 6.7 million viewers for the evening after its two repeats were tallied. That’s up 13 percent from its first airing last year and represents a record for the show in both measurements.

Despite heavy publicity and a rabid fan base, odds were stacked against Thrones setting a record. TV viewership historically dips on Easter Sunday, and Thrones ran head-to-head for the first time with the heavily anticipated The Walking Dead finale, which has a demographically similar male-skewing audience (and also set a series record last night). Give that Thrones premiered against the wind, I suspect Thrones will beat these numbers a few times this season (and could it surpass True Blood as HBO’s most-watched show?).

How close was my Thrones ratings prediction yesterday? Nearly dead-on: I bet on 4.3 million at 9 p.m. and nailed the 6.7 million for the night. Though HBO has not announced a fourth season on Thrones, you will likely see a renewal within the next couple weeks. Renewed! Check out my recap of the Thrones season premiere here. READ FULL STORY »

How does HBO feel about having the most pirated show on TV?

Not too bad, apparently.

HBO programming president Michael Lombardo spoke to EW about the rampant illegal downloading of the network’s fantasy hit drama Game of Thrones, which returns for its third season tonight.

The show’s second season was recently released to record-setting DVD sales for the network. But in December, Thrones topped another chart that is far more dubious — Thrones ranked as the most illegally downloaded TV series for 2012. “I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but it is a compliment of sorts,” Lombardo said. “The demand is there. And it certainly didn’t negatively impact the DVD sales. [Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network.”

The show is currently, on a per-season basis, the network’s top money-earner despite widespread piracy of the show, the executive confirmed. “If you look at aggregate of international and DVD sales — which are the two revenue streams we look at since we’re not selling it domestically on another platform — yes, absolutely, in terms of shows we have on now,” Lombardo said. READ FULL STORY »

Were you frustrated by Daenerys Targaryen’s season 2 progress on Game of Thrones?

Emilia Clarke understands. Sitting in the lounge of a hotel in West Hollywood, her natural dark hair effectively hiding her TV alter ego as the dragon queen to passing guests, Clarke says her character had a “very frustrating season two.” The exiled heir to the Iron Throne spent the season in the wealthy city of Qarth, getting the runaround from its rich patrons, battling a warlock and even losing her precious trio of young dragons for a time (say it with me now, “Where are my dragons!?”).

Season 3 starts much the same way. Dany arrives at another Mediterranean-style city (called Astapor) and still seeks resources to invade Westeros. But expect her story to move very quickly. “She hits the ground running, lets put it that way,” Clarke says. “Season two was so much about trust and she learned she couldn’t trust many people. Season three is her trusting herself and not trusting other people. She has to prove to herself and others that she knows what she’s doing.”

Dany sets her sights on acquiring a slave army called the Unsullied. The fighting men are considered among the best in the world, though are also quite expensive. “She starts the season with nothing — just the dragons,” she says. “It’s a huge test this season to get the army. It’s what she always should have had, basically.” Her dragons, by and by, are firmly bigger and more vicious than last year, as the Thrones producers discussed in our previous post. Not that Dany is afraid of them. “Her maternal instinct outweighs any trepidation,” she says.

The 25-year-old Clarke has a unique position on the hit show since her character doesn’t interact with any of the show’s main cast members. She’s basically the star of her own separate program and this season her scenes were largely shot in an entirely different country (Morocco) from the rest of the show. “I get to be in The Dany Zone for ages,” she says. “I always get the lovely hot destination.”

Though her characters still longs for her ill-fated Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa), she says fans can expect a “light smattering of romance” this season.

Clarke has also been expanding her sights beyond Thrones recently, starring in a new stage adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany’s on Broadway. “She’s probably the nicest human on the planet,” says Thrones executive producer David Benioff. “But when she goes full Daenerys Stormborn, you completely believe she’d burn people alive.”

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Some on the Game of Thrones team avoid the f-word. The HBO hit is a complex grown-up drama about human relationships, they say, that just happens to take place in a world that’s a tad different from our world.

But John Bradley, who plays kind and oft-abused Nights Watch member Samwell Tarly on the show, supports Thrones owning the fantasy label. “A lot of people involved with the show say this isn’t really a fantasy, and that it’s mainly about humanity, and that’s all great,” he says. “But if you do like fantasy it is a fantasy. And if you like it, the show is going to cater to the parts of you who like it. We shouldn’t distance ourselves from fantasy too much.”

HBO is letting its geek-flag fly a bit more this season too. The network was concerned before launching the show that marketing its expensive drama as a fantasy would alienate mainstream viewers (and female viewers in particular). But after using images of Sean Bean on a throne and a fist grasping a crown to promote the first two seasons, this season is promoted with the shadow of a flying dragon — there’s really no escaping that Thrones is a fantasy now. “Fantasy fans are incredibly loyal and passionate,” Bradley adds. “Other people don’t want to be seen as passionate about things, they want to be cool and laconic. The great thing about fantasy fans is they’ll really get behind a show.” READ FULL STORY »

Thrones Countdown #7: Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams were hanging out in public one day when they were approached by a Game of Thrones fan. Turner, who plays Sansa Stark on the show, and Williams, who plays Arya Stark, had struck up an immediate friendship when they first met at their Thrones auditions (Williams recalls leaving her test thinking, “Even if I don’t get the part of Arya I want Sophie to get the part of Sansa.”) So this fan comes up to the actresses and says to Williams, “You’re my favorite,” and then says to Turner, “You’re my least favorite.”

And that, of course, was totally rude. But it’s a reaction Turner says she received a surprising amount of since starting on the show — at least during the show’s first year or so. “At first it kind of came as a shock because people didn’t like Sansa; she isn’t a fan favorite,” says the 17-year-old Turner, who landed the role after her drama teacher encouraged her to try out for the HBO series. “A lot of fans that recognize me go, ‘I kind of hate you,’ and I’m all, ‘Cool, well, you’ve just made this sufficiently awkward.’ I thought I was being personally attacked, but I knew I wasn’t. It was all new to me.”

Some fans are doubtless reading this and wondering, “Why would anybody hate Sansa?” She’s totally sympathetic, Turner nails the part and last season had some terrific scenes (and has some of her best work yet coming up in season three). There’s probably a few factors at play. One is that, in George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels that Game of Thrones is based on, Sansa is less sympathetic than on the show (she told Cersei her father’s plans to take his family away from King’s Landing in the first book, accidentally playing a pivotal role in his eventual execution — many book-readers still haven’t forgiven her for that). Even on the show, initially Sansa came across, by design, naive and selfish, protecting the devious Joffrey instead of her sister Arya in an early dispute. And then there’s the whole sibling-comparison factor — Robb Stark is fighting a war, bastard-born Jon Snow is infiltrating the Wildling camp, Arya is a badass tomboy, Bran and Rickon Stark are on the run (so to speak). They’re all taking charge of their destinies. Sansa is a hostage, alternately pampered and tormented. Her character has been less heroic, but she’s increasingly admirable and likable as the show progresses. READ FULL STORY »