Game of Thrones star Brenock O’Connor has revealed he received death threats after his part in killing Jon Snow. The episode fell just shy of the series’ highest live audience numbers, but set a new series record in overall viewership.
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Though snapping the debut growth spurt the series based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, that April 24 result is only 0.6% less in viewers than what the then record breaking Season 5 GoT opener had on April 12 previous year.
Yesterday’s episode was seen by a massive 727,000 viewers across the country – a huge 31 per cent jump from season five’s 553,000. Because of the growing popularity of streaming, that number eclipses a similar count for last season’s finale (10.3 million).
That might not sound like much, but when you consider Pornhub’s popularity it accounts for hundreds of thousands of people who opted for Westeros instead of their usual Sunday night entertainment. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the total tally will be determined in a few weeks, as HBO does not release ratings before comprehensive Live-plus-7 (viewing that happens within seven days of an episode’s first telecast) returns.
“Silicon Valley” led into “Veep” (0.5, 1.10 million vs. 0.6, 1.05 million last year), which led into “Last Week Tonight” (0.6, 1.34 million).
The show is legally available in Australia via Foxtel at the same time as in the USA, as well as on the media company’s subscription streaming service, Foxtel Play. Game of Thrones also dwarfed the number of viewers for Veep’s premiere.
Following HBO’s entertainment series on Sunday, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” drew 1.343 million viewers, up by almost 500,000 viewers week to week (from 849,000).
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NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.1 million viewers.
