HBO Renews ‘Game of Thrones’ After Airing One Episode

It must be nice not to have to worry so much about ratings and instead focus primarily on quality. Oh, to have those kinds of problems like premiere cable netwrok HBO. What have they done this time?

Much like they did previously with shows such as Boardwalk Empire and Treme, HBO has given the greenlight for another season to its new drama Game of Thrones after only airing the premiere episode — even though its rating didin’t set any records. The ratings were solid, coming in between other premieres such as True Blood and Boardwalk Empire, but it’s the show itself that earned another season.

“We are delighted by the way David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have brought George R.R. Martin’s amazing book series to the screen, and thrilled by the support of the media and our viewers,” HBO’s head of programming Michael Lombardo said.

For its debut at 9 PM on Sunday, the show drew 2.2 million viewers, down 54% from the September premiere of Boardwalk Empire but up 57% from the 1.4 million who tuned in for the debut of True Blood 3 years ago. Overall, the premiere of Game of Thrones averaged 4.2 million viewers on Sunday for its 3 airings vs. 7.1 million for Boardwalk Empire in September.

So far HBO seems to be doing very well with most of its original programming, especially lately. With True Blood and Treme returning soon and the solid performance of Game of Thrones it looks like DVRs across the country are going to remain full of HBO programming for the foreseeable future. As fans of the new Game of Thrones as well as Treme, Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, Bored to Death and most of the other current HBO series, we’re going to be there too.

Game of Thrones stars Mark Addy, Sean Bean, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey. It airs Sundays at 9/8C on HBO.