HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Was HBO's Biggest Series Premiere Of All Time With 10 Million Viewers

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Was HBO's Biggest Series Premiere Of All Time With 10 Million Viewers

Nobody is interested in Game of Thrones since the show "torpedoed its own legacy" with its final season... right? Not so much. House of the Dragon just gave HBO its biggest premiere of all time...

News
By MarkCassidy - Aug 23, 2022 10:08 AM EST
Filed Under: Game of Thrones
Source: Via SFF Gazette

Though some seemed certain that a new Game of Thrones series would never be a major ratings draw after what was widely perceived as a disappointing final season, the debut episode of prequel show House of the Dragon has just given HBO its biggest premiere ever.

Almost 10 million viewers (9.99 million, to be exact) tuned in to witness the beginning of the end of House Targaryen, officially making the episode the network's most-watched series premiere of all time.

“It was wonderful to see millions of Game of Thrones fans return with us to Westeros last night,” HBO and HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys said in a statement. "House of the Dragon features an incredibly talented cast and crew who poured their heart and soul into the production, and we’re ecstatic with viewers’ positive response. We look forward to sharing with audiences what else George [R.R. Martin], Ryan [Condal] and Miguel [Sapochnik] have in store for them this season.”

HBO hasn't officially released any figures, but according to THR, the episode was also the best series launch to date on HBO Max in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

It'll be interesting to see if this viewership holds as the show progresses, but these kingly figures already bode well for a season 2 renewal.

What did you guys think of the first episode of House of the Dragon? Drop us a comment down below.

"The prequel series finds the Targaryen dynasty at the absolute apex of its power, with more than 15 dragons under their yoke. Most empires—real and imagined—crumble from such heights. In the case of the Targaryens, their slow fall begins almost 193 years before the events of Game of Thrones, when King Viserys Targaryen breaks with a century of tradition by naming his daughter Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne. But when Viserys later fathers a son, the court is shocked when Rhaenyra retains her status as his heir, and seeds of division sow friction across the realm."

House of the Dragon stars Paddy Considine (Peaky Blinders) as King Viserys Targaryen, Olivia Cooke (Ready Player One) as Alicent Hightower, Emma D’Arcy (Wanderlust) as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and Matt Smith (Doctor Who) as Prince Daemon Targaryen. The show is set to premiere on August 21.

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Reginator
Reginator - 8/23/2022, 10:26 AM
It was good in my opinion and am looking forward to more episodes.
thewanderer
thewanderer - 8/23/2022, 10:46 AM
@Reginator - agreed, I think it was a very good start that setup future storylines.
DCasAhobby
DCasAhobby - 8/23/2022, 11:00 AM
@Reginator - i actully wasn't sure if i wanted to watch becuse i knew full well HBO skimped us on the season final to sit up the 7 spinoff series. So that teed me off a little.

But after watching that first ep of HoD i'm all in. GoT is still the best
MrDandy
MrDandy - 8/23/2022, 10:27 AM
It was a promising step forward. Got me invested in where it is going.
Doomsday8888
Doomsday8888 - 8/23/2022, 10:30 AM
And the episode even leaked, damn.
mastakilla39
mastakilla39 - 8/23/2022, 4:25 PM
@Doomsday8888 - Thats what happens when you spend 100 mil on marketing the 1st episode then cancel everything else lol
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 8/23/2022, 10:32 AM
''Nobody is interested in Game of Thrones since the show "torpedoed its own legacy" with its final season... right?''

Even if people weren't, I think many of them still tuned in hope of seeing a burning ship sinking. Don't think this show was ever gonna premiere with low numbers.

People still watch the next Marvel movie too, even if the last one sucked. If pop culture had FOMO things, GoT is about as much one as Marvel and Star Wars. People will watch no matter what.
DCasAhobby
DCasAhobby - 8/23/2022, 10:58 AM
@bkmeijer1 - "People still watch the next Marvel movie too, even if the last one sucked."

A large part of that is because what "sucks" is debatable. We speak as if our words are law. Deciding if a I or few crtics are haters didn't like something than no one did.

That is never the case. Usually just the loud vocal minority.

I will say i do fully understand shows with great records of quality like GoT and the MCU do earn themselves a measure of goodwill. So people will still tune in after a no so perfect attempt.

But saying those studios earned it is the understatment of the year
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 8/23/2022, 11:11 AM
@DCasAhobby - you're right, what I meant to say is: people still watch the next Marvel movie too, even if the last one sucked in their opinion.

I personally think they're always enjoyable (regardless of quality), and that's why I tune in. The Marvel (or Star Wars, or Game of Thrones) name is a guarantee for (generally good) entertainment for me.

Ofcourse there are dozens of other reasons to watch these pop culture phenomena as well (e.g. FOMO, fandoms or love for the source material).
CplHicks
CplHicks - 8/23/2022, 10:40 AM
When I read that Dan and Dave had no part of this I decided I'd give it a chance.
GhostDog
GhostDog - 8/23/2022, 10:47 AM
IronGenesis
IronGenesis - 8/23/2022, 10:47 AM
Not spoiling myself…but it was nice to see the rulers of westeros seemingly competent, sane and not evil.
CassianAndor
CassianAndor - 8/23/2022, 11:47 AM
@IronGenesis - Really? The king seemed pretty stupid to me. And his brother a sadistic jerk.
IronGenesis
IronGenesis - 8/23/2022, 11:51 AM
@BloopBlorp2 - his brother really isn’t a ruler. And king and his council seemed to all be acting in good faith which was a far cry better than when we were introduced to Robert in GOT who was a drunken, womanizing, overweight shell.
ColdSlither
ColdSlither - 8/23/2022, 12:09 PM
@IronGenesis - In other words, Robert was par for the course.
CassianAndor
CassianAndor - 8/23/2022, 12:24 PM
@IronGenesis - His council appeared to be acting in good faith, sure. But the king himself I thought seemed super dumb. Not saying this is a negative, just saying how the character came across to me.
Kyos
Kyos - 8/23/2022, 10:51 AM
Good for them. Maybe one day I'll watch it, too.
DCasAhobby
DCasAhobby - 8/23/2022, 10:53 AM
The hate was hyperbolic anyway. HBO got greedy deciding instead of giving us an actual finale to show they made the final another cliffhanger instead. The greed was trying to use the shows popularity to launch 7 spinoffs instead of wrapping the show in the proper way.

So after literal years of speculation about who be king of the north and what not we got nothing. Just a cliffhanger. That's what pissed people off. This show created more chatter than any other. When those questions didn't get answered some were pissed off.

Then of course internet culture would lose their minds and sheeply horde hate creating the false narrative that the whole show, whole seasons of the show ass. Which is seriously hyperbolic.

Even with the divisive ending GoT is by far and away the best show ever. Internet hyperbole and idiots were never going to be enough to make people forget the greatest time this gen had watching a show.

House of Dragons is straight fire. Instantly made me remember what I loved about these shows. GoT earned the support. Phenomenal show. GoT is easily the best show ever. In every category. Its not close.
ComicBookPsycho
ComicBookPsycho - 8/23/2022, 11:05 AM
@DCasAhobby - Didn't HBO want more seasons but 2D refused, or am I misremembering?
DCasAhobby
DCasAhobby - 8/23/2022, 11:08 AM
@ComicBookPsycho - not sure about that bro. All i know is HBO got greedy because of the shows insane hype.

They figured why end here when we can just create more shows and keep making people tune it.

The fact that they choose to MAKE 7 SPINOFFS SAYS IT ALL. I couldn't believe it when i heard that at first.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 8/23/2022, 11:16 AM
@ComicBookPsycho - there was talk about them wanting to focus on other stuff (their Netflix deal or their Star Wars trilogy), but I think that was mostly hearsay and nothing official.

Same with the shows just taking too much time to produce in a certain time span (that's why the seasons were shorter as well)
keithvw
keithvw - 8/23/2022, 11:23 AM
@DCasAhobby - Fantastic way of putting it. People forget that the book series wasn't even finished, and for anyone that's read it so far, knows that to try and finish the series in just two books will probably not happen. And, even if the next book actually comes out, I doubt the final book (or books) will ever make it to shelves.

This is what the showrunners had to deal with. A story so large and out of control that even the author is unable to complete it. And HBO did indeed have ideas for spinoffs before the series even ended. My guess is that they saw the writing on the wall, saw how big the show was getting, and knew if it continued on for another 6 seasons, the cast would ask for insane amounts of money for each episode.

Ending GoT on a high note (I still really liked the ending) was an impossible task. People were already whining about the show by season 5. It's no coincidence that's when the show overtook the books. By that point, the job was not to continue the story, but rather begin the process of ending everything. Something GRR Martin hasn't bothered to do. It's like building a mansion with a massive set of blue prints, and then halfway through, someone burns the blue prints and tells you to use your imagination to finish it.
MrDandy
MrDandy - 8/23/2022, 11:57 AM
@ComicBookPsycho - yes. They offered D&D 3 FULL seasons for 30 episodes total to finish the series. They declined and decided to do it in 13 episodes. It was speculated they were trying to wrap up the series faster as they were offered projects with Lucasfilm.
keithvw
keithvw - 8/23/2022, 1:26 PM
@MrDandy - What I don't believe about this is that if HBO was really adamant on continuing the series, they would've just continued the series. They would've gotten a new showrunner and kept D&D on as executive producers. Whether as show stays or ends is HBO's call. Maybe D&D were eager to move on, but HBO wanted to wrap it up, probably so they could produce spinoffs without having to worry about a conflict with actor contracts.

If the execs at HBO didn't want GoT to end, it would still be on TV today ala Walking Dead.
RegularPoochie
RegularPoochie - 8/23/2022, 5:19 PM
@ComicBookPsycho - yes
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 8/23/2022, 11:47 AM
It was a great first episode 💪🔥💪🔥💪🔥💥❤️
CassianAndor
CassianAndor - 8/23/2022, 12:18 PM
Not judging the show yet, but I gotta say it was a lot more... boring than I thought it would be. Won’t be surprised if these numbers drop pretty drastically in coming weeks.

There’s no real mystery to pull you in. GoT had that initial mystery of who killed Jon Arryn, and the larger mystery of the White Walkers. Not to mention the massive amounts of world building that first season had to do. They just threw you in the middle of it and let you figure out where you are and what’s going on. It was amazing and fun.

With this show almost everyone already knows the world, yet they still didn’t trust the audience enough not to have a prologue scene explaining everything. That felt very out of place and lazy to me. And the rest of the show just felt like going through the motions.
bl0odwerk
bl0odwerk - 8/23/2022, 12:54 PM
I didn't watch it. I saw enough w/the other show. Also, I don't believe the only people who can/should post in a thread related to a show/movie are those who are interested in/watching it.
Himura
Himura - 8/23/2022, 1:52 PM
LMAO but I thought GoT was dead because of the shitty final season!

It's like people just magically forgot this show was a HUGE cultural phenomenon. Of course people would be interested in it even if the ending wasnt great. Not everyone lives on the internet to complain about tv shows. People just like watching the shit they like to watch.
Kadara
Kadara - 8/23/2022, 2:52 PM
I'm waiting for a few more eps to drop before catching up on it. I don't have the patience to wait a whole week to progress the story lol.
TheUnworthyThor
TheUnworthyThor - 8/23/2022, 4:05 PM
People always conflate them bitching about something online and finding others to bitch with them with real life. Most people don’t know what people online are saying about most subjects. Even worse when you are online and find hundreds of people that share your opinion it feels like a lot, or thousands, or even tens of thousands, it can look like and feel like the whole world shares your opinion when in reality those people are a drop in the bucket. They represent such a small percentage of the total population of this planet and y’all knowingly or unknowingly searched each other out. And that little echo chamber can tell you basically nothing about how the general audience will react and behave. And it happens every day on every subject throughout the world.
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