HBO’s Game of Thrones renewed for third season after record-breaking ratings

It should come as no surprise that the HBO award-winning series, Game of Thrones, has been renewed for a third season.  HBO programming president, Michael Lombardo, announced the renewal today and I’m sure many fans of the series, especially the books, breathed a sigh of relief.

“Series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss raised our expectations for the second season – and then surpassed them,” said Lombardo. “We are thrilled by all the viewer and media support we’ve received for the series, and can’t wait to see what Dan and David have in store for next season.”

According to EW, Game of Thrones “returned to 3.9 million viewers. That’s up a massive 74 percent from its series debut last year. It also greatly improves upon the show’s previous all-time high, which was just over 3 million viewers. Including all three Sunday airings, the show delivered 6.3 million viewers.”

Here’s a peek at season 2:

As a huge fan of the books and the show, I am ecstatic.  My biggest fear with the series (next to author George R.R. Martin never finishing the books) is to have the show cancelled without seeing it all the way through.  Showrunners Benioff and Weiss have said that they intend to break up the third book, A Storm of Swords, into two seasons, which would account for seasons three and four.  They could easily cut down and combine the fourth and fifth books into one season in my opinion, which would make room for, hopefully, the grand finale of the series.

However, Martin has been extending the series with no end in sight.  I guess the best we can do is just enjoy the ride, which most of us certainly have thus far, especially if you’re looking at ratings.

Game of Thrones season 2 is currently underway on HBO with new episodes every Sunday night at 9/10 ET/PT and be sure to check out our weekly column Beyond The Wall over at the Digital Dorm every Monday!

Source: HBO, Entertainment Weekly

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