Game of Thrones viewership numbers drop a tad on Mother’s Day 

The title of the post notwithstanding, I have no idea what effect the fact that Sunday was Mother’s Day had on the numbers. Nielsen has measured that the first airing of 

 S5 episode five was seen by 6.56 million viewers, which is the lowest number this season. Nevertheless, the show comfortably won the night once more.

The performance has been largely steady this season – with the notable exception of the premiere with its almost 8 million viewers, which is particularly impressive. Was that a fluke? A perfect storm? Let’s see what the rest of the season will bring: there is room for growth when it comes to this favourite pet metrics of ours, as long as the viewers are motivated enough to see the latest episode as soon as possible.

What do you think will happen next week, then? No holiday and no leaks this time, and the preceding episode was a doozy (if you belong to that particular school of prognosticators). Discuss below, as always.

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Oh no… such a shame for this wonderful episode and bryan cogman.

I dont think Mothers day had any impact on that, maybe most viewers don’t like a slow burn season, and are not perseverant with the watching..

And I think that first episode ratings were due to the excitement around the return of “Thrones”

No UK figures for weeks 4 & 5 here yet, but week 3 was 1.98m which was +0.05m on week 2.

Not to worry, the numbers that were a bit off were those from the first episode, the rest are on par with last season. I guess the ratings will be around 7M the next few episodes, with the finale getting closer to, but not reaching, the premiere ones

Edit: Clearly the effect of the leaks was MUCH LESS than most of the people predicted. We won’t see an increase to 8M next week

I sorta knew this was gonna happen . This season has felt weird . Specially for me . I’m not a book reader but I’ve read the entire plot line on wiki so I’m somewhere between a sullied and unsullied viewer (sorta like I lost the stones but am still happy with the pillar ) I don’t know why but this season just comes off as weird so far . And the reason I think is because they are changing story lines from the books but at the same time throwing in way too much info from the books . It’s hard to describe really . It like if u read the potter series but suddenly in the 5th movie u see aunt petunia and uncle vernon go to howarts and talk about the boy who lived . They’re throwing in references to the past and for show watchers only it all seems like a bore cuz half of them can’t remember who the farukhistan all these people are ( thankfully I don’t have that issue )

Honestly, I think they’ve made a mess of the season, as a book reader. But I don’t think that’s why the ratings have fallen. I think it’s probably because the season has just been really boring. With huge dumps of exposition just fisted right in to every episode in an almost formulaic manner (likely because they’ve gotten so tired and just want the whole thing over with, thus deciding on 7 seasons which has resulted not only in said exposition dumps but over simplification of, now, everything).

Oh no, stupid pirates stealing from HBO are soooo responsible for lower viewership! Everyone knows that!

Oh for the love of god, the ratings to not correlate to freaking book changes. I wish some book readers would just get past this notion.

I am at a loss to explain the premier numbers, though. Perhaps the hype of the show attracted some first time viewers who felt that they just couldn’t get into it?

I am at a loss to explain the premier numbers, though. Perhaps the hype of the show attracted some first time viewers who felt that they just couldn’t get into it?

The premiere was underwhelming, yes. Noone who tuned in for the first time would get hooked

Initial-airing ratings on Mother’s Day have been lower than the previous week’s ratings in every season except Season 1. The complete list:

Season 1: 2.44 million (pre-Mother’s Day), 2.45 million (Mother’s Day). Change: +0.4% Season 2: 3.88 / 3.69 / -4.9%

So, this not only was the highest initial-airing viewership on any Mother’s Day in the history of the show, this also was the smallest week-over-week drop of any Mother’s Day episode since Season 1.

Seems like the leaks had an impact, but the Mother’s Day impact was just slightly bigger. Expect at least 7 million for Episode 6.

In my opinion, these subpar ratings are due to the awful promotional campaign and the lack of buzz for this year.

Also when you compare the views online for trailers etc…it’s not even close to last year.

The viewership is massive. Absolutely massive. And that’s not including the piracy and non-US viewers. Maybe we’re spoiled by years of increasing viewerships. But the numbers had to settle at some point. Kind of sad to see fans resorting to demeaning the show as an explanation; did people expect the ratings to climb by the millions every season?

Personally I think season 5 is leaps better than the two books it was based on. Book readers seem disconcerted (understandably, some have been living with these storylines for decades) and judge the show on completely different merits (fidelity to the books/living up to their imagination) than unsullied viewers (who by and large seem to continue loving it.)

Fanbases seem to have two operative modes: adulation and panic stations.

Edit: Clearly the effect of the leaks was MUCH LESS than most of the people predicted.

A reasonable position, one easily reached by a careful examination of download statistics for the leaked episodes. Back then I contended that the leaks took away 250,000-350,000 US viewers AT MOST, and that was already quite generous on my part. I think these new numbers more or less confirm that.

My state had its fishing season opener as well as Mother’s Day this weekend. I was on the interstate a couple hours before the episode and traffic was crazy. We may not know how events such as those really effect viewership, but there’s no doubt that a lot of people were not at home in my area on Sunday evening. Nielsen people shouldn’t be too much different than the rest of us. 😛

What a shame, because this episode was the best of the season so far — though, no offense to Cogman, that hasn’t exactly been a difficult thing to accomplish with this season. It’s definitely dragging.

It’s only a small drop compared to previous ones. The first four episodes have been leaked and there were hockey games starting at the same time as the show aired. And now the fifth episode was on Mother’s day.

I wonder if those events and holidays affect the viewerships or if it’s the show itself. Nonetheless, it’s still a very large amount of viewers and we can potentially expect more despite those holidays or unfortunate events that keep watchers busy.

Every season had episodes where viewer ratings went up and down, and it’s normally by the later parts of every season that we see a heightened result.

The trailers mostly premiered on Facebook and places that aren’t as easy to track viewer-wise as if they had premiered on Youtube.

But I don’t think the promotion is the problem, as much as I hated the campaigns this year. The episode this week was downloaded in record amounts. People are still massively into this show. They just aren’t going to HBO to watch it as much as HBO would like.

I’m not a book reader but I’ve read the entire plot line on wiki

An irrelevant curiosity, but I gotta ask, why would you do that to yourself?! Were people spoiling things for you, and you just thought “screw it, if anyone’s going to spoil it, it might as well be me”?

I think this season is gonna have more major events than any of the previous seasons.Unsullied who say that this five episodes where dull or boring are gonna be shocked by what’s coming in the second part of the season.Some parts will shock the book readers too.

In my opinion, these sub-par ratings (for this monster of a show) are due to the awful promotional campaign and the lack of buzz for this year.

Also when you compare the views online for trailers etc…it’s not even close to last year.

Yeah well, someone made the absurd correlation between trailer views on youtube and ratings on the HBO first pass while calling other people idiots…wish I could remember who it was.

The ratings are great, they were great last year and so they are still great this year. This season has been a bit boring though, but that’s just in my opinion. I think the new writer was not up to the task, and the new directors have been underwhelming.

Regarding this last statement, any post has addressed the directors work? I haven’t been checking the site as much due to the leaks.

Mr Fixit: A reasonable position, one easily reached by a careful examination of download statistics for the leaked episodes. Back then I contended that the leaks took away 250,000-350,000 US viewers AT MOST, and that was already quite generous on my part. I think these new numbers more or less confirm that.

I remember you did, and I remember some people called you a fool 😉

Finally, a man or woman who speaks sense. There haven’t been any major red wedding, blackwater, mountain and viper, Ned’s execution, etc. moments yet this season. I’m sure some are coming, but at this point in the narrative, the show is exactly what I want. It has been given tremendous room to breathe, and it is exactly the breath of fresh air the show needed after the whooshing of season 4 (don’t get me wrong, season 4 was my favorite so far). But this season has been incredible throughout, even if episode 5 itself was a verryyyyyyy slowwwwww episode. This doesn’t mean bad. Do you notice how Bryan Cogman is able to derive an enormous amount of tension from an episode as slowly paced as this? I was holding my breath in numerous scenes. The ratings are impacted by a number of things:

1. Piracy and HBO now and GO needing to sort its shit out. 2. Mother’s Day

3. 4 episode leaks leading people to get used to downloading the episode (which was made available via torrents at pretty much 10:15ish PM.

5. The number of people watching just sort of plateauing. We’ve had 4 seasons of upward viewership, and now it’s sort of reaching a midpoint.

All I have to say, is the last 2-3 episodes will likely upswing with the chance that the finale exceeds all viewership expectations. Just my guesses, but wait and see, guys, jeez.

It always makes me smile when some book readers who don’t think that books 4 & 5 were weaker and slower than the first 3, and then claim that Season 5 is slow. Well, I hate to break it to you, but this season has been considerably faster than the books it is based on. That’s not to say this is the best ever season, because it probably isn’t (although it’s my third favourite season so far). Thank God they cut do many storyline, because if they hadn’t imagine how slow it would have been!

There’s really nothing to worry about with the ratings. When shows reach a certain level of popularity, premieres and finales finale always rate higher than anything else.

Book purists will use these ratings to bash the show, but unless they start falling considerably, it actually just shows that the show has reached a ceiling ratings-wise (which all shows do).

The pirating figures certainly seem to suggest that the show has a massive following, because those people are desperate to see it now, rather than when the DVDs come out.

It is kind of a shame. The first four episodes have been leaked and there were hockey games starting at the same time as the show aired. And now the fifth episode was on Mother’s day.

I wonder if those events and holidays affect the viewerships or if it’s the show itself. Nonetheless, it’s still a very large amount of viewers and we can potentially expect more, despite those holidays or unfortunate events that keep watchers busy. Every season had episodes where viewers went up and down, and it’s normally by the end that we see a heightened result.

Hockey gets terrible ratings in the US. It’s not an issue. The effects of the leak is overstated — most of the downloaders were not in the US and were not people who normally watch HBO. The mother’s day effect is real, but not a big deal.

The reality very much seems to be that the premiere was very much “appointment viewing” — the start of a new season, etc. The bump was bigger than it normally is for most premieres and I’m not sure we’ll ever get a great reason why.

I think there’s a decent chance the premiere is the highest initial viewing of the season. And a decent chance episode 8 or 9 or 10 beats it. (Seven is Memorial Day, 10 may be Father’s Day? Or are they skipping Memorial Day weekend again this year?)

In my opinion it has been the strongest first half yet and the directors especially Podeswa have all been fantastic. But it’s definitely a slow season as of now.

People do realize that these numbers don’t mean anything to HBO, right? They care about the overall numbers from the premiere, repeats, DVR, HBO Go, and HBO Now. Not to mention how much money it can bring in from international viewers.

Stop using old ways to continue to calculate viewership.

Besides… it is still the most popular show on the network. Nothing is going to happen to it. So why make a big deal of the numbers? People just want to complain and websites like this just want page hits. These are non stories.

The viewership is massive. Absolutely massive. And that’s not including the piracy and non-US viewers. Maybe we’re spoiled by years of increasing viewerships. But the numbers had to settle at some point. Kind of sad to see fans resorting to demeaning the show as an explanation; did people expect the ratings to climb by the millions every season?

Honestly, just the ones on message boards. Most of my friends watch Game of Thrones and a decent portion have read the books.

Most of my friends really enjoy it. None of my book-reading friends are nearly as angry over it as people who go to ASIOF/GoT message boards. And my book-reading friends are enjoying the season.

In fact, the only person who has expressed discontent with the show is someone who really hasn’t recovered from the Red Wedding — he was rooting for the Starks and has never been much excited about the show since. But he still watches. And my dad is still angry about Ned, but he watches, too.

In my scientific study, none of my 20 or so friends who watch have quit. But a ton started watching after season 2 and I’ve added few since. And frankly, nearly all of us have lives that really push us to watch on HBO Go or DVR or whatever.

” It always makes me smile when some book readers who don’t think that books 4 & 5 were weaker and slower than the first 3, and then claim that Season 5 is slow. Well, I hate to break it to you, but this season has been considerably faster than the books it is based on. That’s not to say this is the best ever season, because it probably isn’t (although it’s my third favourite season so far). Thank God they cut do many storyline, because if they hadn’t imagine how slow it would have been!”

So my position is clear: I was a show watcher years before I was a book reader. But yes, books 4 and 5 are my favourites.

I can see why you would think it contradictory to prefer the two slowest books and then complain about the slowest season. However! As the show apologists are always so swift to proclaim when demanding D&D cut anything that isn’t an action sequence – sorry, I mean cut ‘filler’ – what works on the page won’t necessarily work on the screen.

That aside! My problem isn’t that it’s slow. It’s that it’s boring. The storylines are so simplistic, the pacing is messy, I had some serious problems with the direction for episode 4, for the first time with the show, I have serious issues with the tone and some of the acting, and the writing has continued to become more and more theatrical – which has dragged us away from any sense of grittiness.

I mean I say all of that, and storm over you all like a dark cloud, but what I don’t share is that I’ve actually really enjoyed this season as well. One just doesn’t tend to share the positives so much. Like in episode three (I know, same director as episode 4) I thought the scenes between Cersei and Margery were expertly crafted. As well as the Margery/Tommen scenes.

Book purists will use these ratings to bash the show

And show-jihadists will use any excuse to bash book purists, even if the book-purists have said nothing of the sort 😉

That’s the main difference between the 2, book purists are obsessed with the books and hence attack the show, and show-jihadists just don’t like other people expressing opinions and attack them just for doing so.

I like both and I find both last installments boring. Make no mistake here guys, here the true genius is (was?) Martin, that’s why the first 3 books/4 seasons were so great and that’s why the last book (book 4 and 5 is 1 book in my mind) and current season was/is underwhelming.

D&D are great at translating Martin genius, but not so much as creating genius work of their own.

You can argue that the last book was so bad that no amount of genius can amend it, but that’s just not the case. First, it wasn’t that bad, second, true genius(es) can amend anything 😉

The Sopranos ratings for the US peaked in season 4 and the only real spike after that was for the series finale with the season 6 part 2 premiere the lowest for years.

I wouldn’t say that marked a decline in quality, just that maybe a certain amount of viewer fatigue sets in after a certain amount of time. I thought season 5 of The Sopranos was just as good as 2 or 3 yet the ratings dropped…

And another example is Mad Men where ratings dropped away after season 5 while the critics still drool over it.

The trailers mostly premiered on Facebook and places that aren’t as easy to track viewer-wise as if they had premiered on Youtube.

But I don’t think the promotion is the problem, as much as I hated the campaigns this year. The episode this week was downloaded in record amounts. People are still massively into this show. They just aren’t going to HBO to watch it as much as HBO would like.

I completely agree. Blu ray sales were through the roof. Illegal downloads are at an all time high. This show gains tons of interest. Just not as much on the first showing on HBO itself. The world is changing. Look at how low network tv ratings are.

It always makes me smile when some book readers who don’t think that books 4 & 5 were weaker and slower than the first 3, and then claim that Season 5 is slow.Well,I hate to break it to you,but this season has been considerably faster than the books it is based on. That’s not to say this is the best ever season,because it probably isn’t (although it’s my third favourite season so far). Thank God they cut do many storyline, because if they hadn’t imagine how slow it would have been!

There’s really nothing to worry about with the ratings.When shows reach a certain level of popularity,premieres and finales finale always rate higher than anything else.

The pirating figures certainly seem to suggest that the show has a massive following,because those people are desperate to see it now,rather than when the DVDs come out.

As a book reader who loves books 4 & 5, they are absolutely slower than book 3. Still great, but if you are looking for non-stop plot, it’s one book stretched across two.

I can also say this season hasn’t been slow at all — look back, aside from Season 1 where they made a strong effort to close every episode with a bang, every season has been a slow burn. And every season people have complained that through episode 6 or so that it has been “slow”. If anything, it has had more happen than several seasons.

Small, short term ratings movements aren’t indicative of quality changes here. People are silly when they use that excuse.

I think it’s also worth noting that we’re probably pretty close to the peak of the first time ratings. Fewer and fewer people are watching on first run, or even on tv. HBO Now, Go will rule the day and DVRs already do. So there’s a natural trend dragging that down.

Add in that GoT is now fully exposed — I doubt there’s a huge untapped market that hasn’t opted in yet. If you are going to watch, you probably are. You’ll lose people for various reasons even without considering quality.

The net result is we may see some more spikes, but I really doubt we’ll see a significantly higher permanent waterline in first run US ratings.

Pau: The premiere was underwhelming, yes. Noone who tuned in for the first time would get hooked

Oh no no no, don’t put me in with the group that says that the premiere (or any part of this season) was underwhelming.

On the contrary, it was fantastic. But if you’re a new viewer who hasn’t seen the rest of the series, it was likely to leave you a bit confounded and out-of-the-loop.

That shows just how bad AFFC and ADWD are.

I wouldn’t say that marked a decline in quality, just that maybe a certain amount of viewer fatigue sets in after a certain amount of time. I thought season 5 of The Sopranos was just as good as 2 or 3 yet the ratings dropped…

I have found even with high level, amazing quality, the casual fans just can’t stick it out. They need to be entertained from day one or they are out the door as soon as things slow down. I blame it on the cell phone attention spans of people these days.

Then no doubt The Winds of Winters’ sales and critical reception will be awful. Won’t they?

I completely agree. Typically show are only good for 5 seasons. Anything more and it suffers. Game of Thrones can probably make it a little longer just because of its cast if characters. But anything beyond 7 seasons won’t be good.

The story needs to end within a reasonable time. Even for books, the series goes on and on into pointless topics. 5 books in and the story barely felt like it moved. Not good.

That aside! My problem isn’t that it’s slow. It’s that it’s boring. The storylines are so simplistic, the pacing is messy,

More excuses! The leaks! Mother’s Day! Nope. The show isn’t as good as it used to be. And that doesn’t mean it’s bad by any means because the show used to be great. Now it is just really good. And I know I am not the only one who does not consider it “appointment television” anymore. But here is to hoping it gets better in the second half.

And another example of ratings declining on a non episodic show which surely challenged viewers is ‘Lost’ which never regained the highs of season 2.

Anyone have examples of non episodic long running shows which grew ratings year on year?

It’ll be a miracle if GoT maintains high rating throughout – but you can expect a spike for the series finale.

In my opinion it has been the strongest first half yet and the directors especially Podeswa have all been fantastic. But it’s definitely a slow season as of now.

Really? Maybe I’m just not as good judging directors because I don’t work on the field. But I can’t remember any shot of the first 4 episodes (haven’t seen the 5th) that made say “wow”! like those shots from Michelle MacLaren, Alik Sakharov, Alan Taylor, David Nutter and yes, even Alex Graves. .

Edit: just checked and Podeswa was the director of episodes 5 and 6. I’ll pay special attention tonite.

Edit 2: Regarding slow I don’t mind slow if slow is good. I love True Detective and Outlander precisely because of their pace. Episode 4 was just…underwhelming

Lmao. It will have no effect on that whatsoever.

While this has been a drag of a season, with nothing really memorable and some mind boggling departures from the book (most of which ive dealt with, including Jaime going to Dorne, but Sansa in Winterfell? Really) Anyway, i dont think that has anything to do with ratings either.

Every single show on television sees a spike in the premiere ratings, Look it up. Some shows never see past 2 million views and are considered hits. Look at another HBO great Boardwalk Empire. or tons of television classics, some of which never had ratings as high as their first season ever again. Game of Thrones had its peak in its 4th season which is a great thing for the show, it has its fanbase, unless the shows quality drops significantly, ratings shouldnt drop much further for the rest of the series. And lets take into account that HBONow is also available in the U.S. now which is where these ratings come from.

This season has to pick up the pace though, its the worst first 5 episodes of any season thus far. I just see so many wrong choices with this season, but these last 5 episodes have the chance to redeem itself, sundays episode was fantastic.

Chriss: Then no doubt The Winds of Winters’ sales and critical reception will be awful. Won’t they?

I can’t go to a movie without somebody checking their phone next to me. How can you expect people to stay for serious character driven stories if there isn’t a shock or surprise ever 2 episodes.

This is why us television viewers can’t have nice things.

At least the show makes enough money that we will get a proper ending.

Pau: Really? Maybe I’m just not as good judging directors because I don’t work on the field. But I can’t remember any shot of the first 4 episodes (haven’t seen the 5th) that made say “wow”! like those shots from Michelle MacLaren, Alik Sakharov, Alan Taylor, David Nutter and yes, even Alex Graves. .

Edit: just checked and Podeswa was the director of episodes 5 and 6. I’ll pay special attention tonite.

Edit 2: Regarding slow I don’t mind slow if slow is good. I love True Detective and Outlander precisely because of their pace. Episode 4 was just…underwhelming

But speaking of direction. The fight scenes in episode 4 were shockingly bad. At one point during the Bronn fight, the horse rears for no reason so Bronn can cut it, and it was still obvious he never. And the Harpy fight, Jesus. As someone else said, it was like a bad Kung Fu movie – with people falling all over the place for no reason.

tl;dr: numbers are dropping because the show isn’t meeting expectations, but it will turn around in the second half of the season.

What pirating numbers? Is anyone referencing actual numbers or just pulling it out of the ether?

HBO Go is too expensive. People were accustomed to cable prices being what they are since the 70s/80s. The consumer has been “Trained” so to speak. The internet has trained people to expect rock bottom or even free content. I can watch four 1 hour shows or play a month of Warcraft or buy a couple games on Steam. That’s how people think. If they really want to grow a market for HBO Go, they need to hook them with low prices: 1 dollar a show, or a a couple bucks a month.

Finally, I think the show will pick up when the buzz picks up; with the season opener, you just had the IMAX showing which was amazing, and featured a plot line reaching a crescendo.

For this season, they chose to put all the good stuff at the end and tease people along with mini “reveals”? I find it incredibly boring. Also, the reworked plots are Rube Goldberg devices: Littlefinger giving Sansa away, then leaving her? Barristan the Bold taking a stroll through the city alone? Danny just up and marrying Hizdar? These are all moments that leave people confused as they do not match the themeing and style of the previous seasons.

The buzz will start picking up as the action heats up. I think we will see 7 million plus by the end, and if the coordinate the release of the next book with an even better IMAX showing, then we can see better numbers from next season.

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