The HBO schedule confirms that there will be a two-week break between the eighth and ninth episodes of the third season. This is due to Memorial Weekend, a big holiday in the USA. Last year the show suffered a significant ratings hit on this weekend, so HBO have opted to instead air a TV movie in the Game of Thrones slot and resume a week later. I'm also hearing there will be significant marketing coverage for the episode, similar to how "Blackwater" was trailed last year.

Slightly irritating since the UK and all other territories airing episodes close after the American broadcast, where Memorial Weekend doesn't even exist, will also have to wait an extra week, but not the end of the world :)

Read more >

Excellent! The renewal comes after a substantial increase in ratings between the second and third seasons, with Game of Thrones triumphing even despite a highly-rated Walking Dead finale.

HBO RENEWS GAME OF THRONES FOR FOURTH SEASON

Season Three Soars To Highest Viewership Yet

LOS ANGELES, April 2, 2013 – HBO has renewed GAME OF THRONES for a fourth season, it was announced today by Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming.

According to early data, GAME OF THRONES’ season three premiere March 31 on HBO topped the series’ highs, with record viewership for both the 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT) airing and gross audience across the three plays.

Based on previous comments, it appears that Season 4 will again be 10 episodes long, covering the remainder of A Stor…

Read more >

The question of what HBO will do once - or if - Game of Thrones catches up with the published novels is slowly becoming more pressing as the series continues to relentlessly bear down on the books ("like a freight train," according to George R.R. Martin). Indeed, I asked this very question a few weeks ago and it's becoming a common one for both Martin and the show's executive producers and showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, to be asked at Q&As and interviews.

We now have one firm answer. Benioff and Weiss have confirmed that, although their #1 preference is for the books to come out first, they will not put the show on hiatus for a year or two as some fans have suggested. They do not want to lose momentum or have to recast the younger…

Read more >

George R.R. Martin has confirmed that he has been in discussion with HBO over an adaptation of his Dunk and Egg short stories, which are also set in Westeros.

For those not familiar with them, these short stories (each about 100 pages long) commence eighty-nine years before the events of Game of Thrones and depict the life stories of Aegon V Targaryen and the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall (mentioned in a Season 1 episode by Old Nan), and their lifelong friendship which begins at a tourney at Ashford. Martin has said that he has plans to write anything from nine to twelve of these stories. The novel A Storm of Swords features a section where Ser Jaime Lannister reads up on Dunk's life story, hinting that their stories will end on the night of …

Read more >

Will Champion, the drummer (and also occasional guitarist, bassist and singer) of Coldplay, has joined the cast for the third season of Game of Thrones. Champion will have a small role as 'a drummer'. Other details about his role are shrouded in secrecy.

Champion is the fourth notable musician to work on the show. Former easy listenin' crooner Jerome Flynn has a recurring major role as Bronn and ex-Blockhead Wilko Johnson is Ser Ilyn Payne, of course, whilst the lead singer of Snow Patrol, Gary Lightbody, also has a cameo role in the upcoming third season.

Read more >