Zombies, romance, revenge drive record Thrones ratings
Fuse preps US version of ‘Blink’
LOS ANGELES, Aug 29, (RTRS): A zombie dragon, an illicit romance and satisfying revenge helped drive the season finale of “Game of Thrones” to a viewership high, HBO said Monday, as the seventh season drew record ratings.
A total of 12.1 million viewers watched Sunday’s seventh season finale, titled “The Dragon and the Wolf”, up 36 percent from the 8.9 million viewers who watched the season six finale. Viewership from replays and streams on HBO’s on-demand apps boosted the overall Sunday ratings to 16.5 million viewers.
The seventh and penultimate season of Emmy-winning “Game of Thrones” drew an overall 30.8 million viewers, up nearly 8 million viewers from last season and cementing it as the most-watched show on Time Warner Inc’s premium cable network HBO.
The record ratings came after hackers stole data and content from HBO and leaked it online, including scripts and unaired episodes of “Game of Thrones”.
The seventh season saw the show’s lead characters head towards a great battle over the Iron Throne reigning over the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, while a zombie army of White Walkers, led by the undead Night King, march south and threaten mankind’s destruction.
Characters Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen finally came together to join forces against the White Walkers, the remaining Stark children reunite at their home in Winterfell and enact a satisfying revenge against master manipulator Petyr Baelish.
The Lannister siblings also reunite in King’s Landing in a tense meeting that puts their family ties to the test.
Medieval fantasy “Game of Thrones”, based on George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” books, has won numerous Emmy awards including best drama series last year. It is not eligible for this year’s Emmy awards due to its summer premiere after production was pushed back to capture more winter landscapes for the storyline, but it will be back on the roster for next year’s Emmy awards.
Ahead of the show’s final eighth season next year, a series of spin-offs is being developed.
Fuse has ordered “Trivial Takedown”, a US version of British pop culture gameshow “Blink” that the cable net promises will be “the fastest quiz on TV”.
The show pits two celebrity contestants against each other in a head-to-head competition to identify music and pop culture icons. The format comes from British producer and distributor Zig Zag, which did the Fuse deal and is making the US version. Production is underway in LA.
In Britain, two seasons of “Blink” have aired on free-to-air broadcaster Channel 4. Celebrities and social media influencers confirmed for Season 1 of “Trivial Takedown” include Flula Borg and Mamrie Hart, both of whom have deals with Lionsgate, Frankie Grande, GloZelle, Omarion, Brittany Furlan, Gina Brillon, and Chico Bean.
The US show was ordered before Fuse inked a deal with Complex Networks that will include distributing Fuse-branded content on Complex Networks, but it will be part of that programming. TV airtime for “Trivial Takedown” is to be confirmed, but the expectation is late primetime, or late night.
MTV’s Video Music Awards faced stiff competition Sunday night from the seasonseven finale of “Game of Thrones”. But the awards show managed to outperform the fantasy drama’s record-breaking episode in the teen demographic, averaging 309,000 teen viewers for the seven-network simulcast, according to Nielsen live-plus-same day numbers.
The VMAs also saw its share of younger viewers 12-24 increase from last year’s show.
Overall, linear ratings for the VMAs were down 16% in MTV’s target 18-34 demo, with a 4.46 — down from a 5.33 rating last season. The VMAs have seen steady linear ratings declines in recent years as the network has shifted its strategy around the show to emphasize social media. The show averaged just over 6 million total linear viewers, down from 6.5 million last year. But for the month of August, MTV is up 31% year over year in primetime 18-34.
On Twitter, the VMAs trended globally for 13 hours Sunday. From 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm ET, the show was the number-one trending topic in the US While linear viewership for awards shows in general has trended down in recent years, MTV has changed its VMA approach to include the sharing of clips from the show on social media channels — and the monetization of those shared clips through sponsorship. At the show’s peak, the VMAs accounted for eight of Twitter’s Top 12 US trending topics Sunday night.