The Results Are In! House Of The Dragon Pulled In 2.5 Times More Viewers For Their Series Premiere Than The New Lord Of The Rings Show
DOWN GOES BEZOS! DOWN GOES BEZOS!!! I guess.
Honestly I'm not sure how much all these numbers mean in the grand scheme of things. Back in the day, ratings seemed like they were the most important thing in the world for a TV show. But when you have this weird streaming world we live in now with one of the richest people on the planet dropping a billy on Season 1 just because he can, things may have changed a bit.
However as a nerdy sports fan that roots for his shows like he roots for his teams, it's nice to see my beloved Thrones come out on top in what is sure to be an endless battle between two monster fantasy franchises. It does feel a little unfair since I didn't even know the new Lord of the Rings franchise was coming out until I saw Dante's blog and barely heard a peep about whether it was good or bad on Twitter where people are known to have an opinion about things from time to time. I also thought House of the Dragon was coming out a week later than it originally was and have many people in my life that loved Thrones admit they had no clue HotD was coming out when it did, even with the HBO marketing machine behind it.
Nonetheless, I still think it was crazy if not absurdly arrogant for Bezos to launch his show head-to-head with Thrones even with Thrones coming off of the most spectacular crash and burn of a franchise that we have ever seen while LOTR will always have the warm and fuzzy feelings that come from a cash printing trilogy that ensured Peter Jackson will always be able to afford a beachfront house with an incredible ocean view. Thrones broke through with casual fans more than any series about wizards and knights ever has. It almost tricked people into becoming nerds by simply having terrible things happen to their favorite characters every few episodes because this man is a sick fuck.
The AFL, XFL, or whatever future professional league that ends in FL can play their season out right as the NFL kicks off. But considering the NFL's only competition on Sunday is God and it's honestly a coin flip about who actually owns that day in the year 2022, I'd stick with going mano a mano with the NFL or the TV version of the NFL, which I am sooooooo happy is #BACK and doesn't suck no matter how weak the character say "Dracarys" in it.
To be clear, I hope The Rings of Power is awesome because I'm a nerd that loves to watch good stories full of magic, orcs, and weird shit like that unfold. However this October is going to be chaotic with the Mets in the playoffs, Thrones back cooking, and a little league called the NFL in full bloom. So call off the dogs, LOTR superfans. I don't want any smoke and mean you no harm, no matter how true this may be.
The Star Wars franchise has had its own share of struggles/catastrophes since this movie but that's another blog for another time
We dove deeper into the Thrones vs. LOTR showdown on this week's Game of Stools along with your typical conversations about Westeros politics, marrying 2-year-olds away to their half sister, and Daemon Targaryen's stock having the most unlikely jump since Gamestop.
h/t Anthony