Game of Thrones renewed for a second season!

[starg8fans]

Actually how it SHOULD be is 20 episode seasons, with 3 seasons announced before launch. If it does well after the first several episodes, renew it for an additional 2 seasons at that time. This season-by-season crap is really starting to tick me off....

Especially when they announce their decision at the last moment when the season finale is pretty well done, so the show ends on a cliffhanger...

[DigiFluid]

20 episode seasons have a tendency to run too long for the story they're trying to tell. I much prefer the premium cable/UK tendency to do 10-13 episode seasons.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Nobody's perfect, but from their track record, those two are exceptions as opposed to the norm. Also, HBO is pretty open when it comes to this kind of thing, they admitted canceling Rome was a mistake. Same with Deadwood. I'm not sure about Carnivale as I never followed that show.

In the case of both Deadwood and Rome it wasn't even their fault entirely. In Deadwood's case, the costs were spiralling rapidly out of control, the creator, David Milch had them build the entire town of Deadwood, not just the sets they needed. Also they had a large cast of very well known actors. That being said they offered David Milch a miniseries to wrap things up, but he turned them down and tried to raise funding for couple of movies to wrap up Deadwood, and failed.

As for Rome, that was mostly the BBC's fault, they provided 15% of the funding, and the costs again were spiralling out of control. The BBC butchered the show when they showed, cutting down episodes, and combining them, so the reaction was very negative in the uk. They then pulled out of funding and HBO was left it a very expensive show (much more expensive than GOT) and it was worried about ratings. So they told the creator they were ending it after the second season and gave the writers time to wrap thing up. As it turned out the ratings were very good for Rome, but before they could renew it, the set burned down and the actors moved on the other projects. But they are trying to put a movie together as we speak.

HBO are pretty good with their shows, if they do cancel them they try and give warning, or ways to wrap them up and they have admitted their mistake in cancelling Deadwood and Rome. As for GOT it should hopefully go on for a long time, it’s estimated they’ll make $1 billion from the first season alone, they’ve already made something like $300 million in international sales.

[MattSilver 3k]

I like HBO. They're fun. HBO and AMC. Both fun. I like them.

[Andron]

HBO co-president Richard Plepler and programming president Michael Lombardo told EW that the second season will have 10 episodes.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/04/19/ga...-season-two-2/

[mr_kennedy]

First of all good news about the renewal, secondly i kinda wish that it got the full season pick up, i like longevity in my shows i think it adds to rewatchablity

[Shan Bruce Lee]

Between this and Boardwalk Empire, HBO has some of the best shows on TV right now. I'm not at all surprised they renewed it just from how good it looked visually.

[MattSilver 3k]

First of all good news about the renewal, secondly i kinda wish that it got the full season pick up, i like longevity in my shows i think it adds to rewatchablity

What. Dude, this is HBO. They don't do back-nine pick ups or whatever. Second season is the pick-up.

[maxbo]

Nobody's perfect, but from their track record, those two are exceptions as opposed to the norm. Also, HBO is pretty open when it comes to this kind of thing, they admitted canceling Rome was a mistake. Same with Deadwood. I'm not sure about Carnivale as I never followed that show.

That's an interesting bit of info. If HBO sees the cancellations of Rome and Deadwood as mistakes then perhaps this will work in GoT's favor so if the show's costs soar and the ratings drop a bit, HBO will stick with for the long haul.

[magictrick]

That's an interesting bit of info. If HBO sees the cancellations of Rome and Deadwood as mistakes then perhaps this will work in GoT's favor so if the show's costs soar and the ratings drop a bit, HBO will stick with for the long haul.

Its already a very expensive production and with season 2 on the way the costs for that will likely increase. I'm sure HBO is aware of this or else they would not have committed to a 2nd season so quickly. Either way it looks like they are putting their full support behind the series because they expect great things.

[Duneknight]

lets not have this one slip from our hands. This is one hell of a story being told for tv, not gonna get this chance again with that kind of production value.

[FrodoFraggins]

I've never seen anything by HBO that states they felt canceling Deadwood, Rome or Carnivale was a mistake. If they did it's basically lip service at this point. I'm glad that HBO has made some of my favorite shows, but they've kind of broken my heart by not ensuring they were given a decent sendoff.

It's great that GoT is guaranteed two years, as even if it gets canceled it will get completed in novel form unless GRRM pulls a Robert Jordan. The main reason I've kept away from the novels is that I'd like to know that the series will be finished.

[DigiFluid]

First of all good news about the renewal, secondly i kinda wish that it got the full season pick up, i like longevity in my shows i think it adds to rewatchablity

What. Dude, this is HBO. They don't do back-nine pick ups or whatever. Second season is the pick-up.

Yes. Not sure what you're talking about, kennedy. HBO seasons are always 9-13 episodes--a 10 episode order is a full season pickup.

[Cold Fuzz]

First of all good news about the renewal, secondly i kinda wish that it got the full season pick up, i like longevity in my shows i think it adds to rewatchablity

It tends to vary a bit from show to show. A full season of True Blood is 12 episodes. Oz was almost always 8 episodes, though season 4 was a bit different with that with an additional 8 episodes. The Pacific and Band of Brothers both got 10 episodes.

What. Dude, this is HBO. They don't do back-nine pick ups or whatever. Second season is the pick-up.

Yeah, there would be salary considerations for the caddy, not to mention having to worry about all the divots around the green. Thankfully, there's no need for a big handicap for this show.

[Egle01]

Already renewed? That's great, now I don't have to fear that I'll grow to like the show lots, and then it gets canned. At least not any time soon.