There was never any question that game seven of the NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors was going to get better ratings than Game of Thrones. It’s game seven of the NBA Finals! Between the teams with the two most marketable players in the NBA! And also Kevin Love! Well, now it’s official: 30.8 million viewers tuned in to ABC to see Cleveland beat Golden State on Sunday night, making it “the most watched NBA game since 1998 when Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz.”
Meanwhile, “The Battle of the Bastards” — possibly the most anticipated episode of the series — pulled in 7.66 million Jon Snow lovers and/or Ramsay Bolton apologists, including 3.9 million in the key 18 to 49 demographic. That’s very solid, especially against the monolith that is a winner-takes-all live sports event, but “Battle” isn’t even the highest rated episode of the season. That honor goes to the premiere, “The Red Woman” (7.94 million), followed by “The Door” (7.89), “Book of the Stranger” (7.82), and “The Broken Man” (7.8).
That 7.66 million will likely skyrocket once the Live +3 (live rating, plus the next three days) numbers are in. And without NBA competition, expect this Sunday’s finale, “The Winds of Winter,” to be the first episode this season — and only the second ever in the show’s history — to cross the eight million viewers mark. Something tells me Game of Thrones is going to be fine.
(Via Winter Is Coming)
Not sure why this would be surprising. Other than cinematography, the episode really was not that great. Predictable and sloppy battle, no surprise in the loser or his method of execution. Looked awesome though…
man you crazy, that was one of the best episodes of television ever made. the Meereen stuff alone was off the charts. the war room scene was great. really wasn’t a less than stellar scene in the whole episode. maybe my favorite GOT ep, definitely top 3 (blackwater, rains of castamere).
I also don’t even understand how your critique of it would affect the viewership ratings. ratings are dependent on hype and popularity of the show, not how good the episode was.
The last part is fair; critique of the episodes content has nothing to do with the ratings. That was LeBron’s fault.
But this was not even a top GoT episode in my opinion. Not even the best episode this season (The Door). So there is no way it could or should be talked about as GOAT for TV episodes. There were better episodes of Matlock…
@nemesis_79 better episodes of Matlock? really? Now you’re just being asinine.
Point is, if you think it was the best thing ever on TV, you’ve not watched much TV… stop glorifying mediocrity because of internet hype.
Well clearly we’re all delusional for having an opinion on an episode, in fact from now on I am going to not even bother trying to develop my own impressions until I’ve heard from nemesis on how I should feel.
Define quality TV though? From a technical aspect, which I imagine many rate as extremely important to quality, this episode fits the bill of absolute top quality.
The score, the cinematography, etc. was nothing but top notch. The tension from how the episode was shot was incredible considering as you noted, it played out narratively how many expected it to.
So, just to clarify, I share my opinion on the episode, am called crazy, defend my opinion, and now I’m the asshole who won’t let others have opinions? Why did you even get out of bed today @lubz102 ?
It was pretty good until Gandalf came flying in with the Rohirrim.