“Game of Thrones” 11.7 million viewers on HBO itself (17 mil across all HBO platforms) was a Game-changer for the network.
Both “Barry” and “Veep,” which follow at 10pm and 10:30pm, had huge increases because of “GoT.”
“Barry” shot up from around 424,000 viewers the previous week to 1,775,000. Yikes! And “Veep” went up from 473K to over 1 million.
Of course, “Barry,” the subtly hilarious show about a hit man, is a broader experience. When the “GoT” viewers got to “Veep” they witnessed deft political satire and a character– Amy– who had an abortion, and then went back to work. I don’t know if HBO planned it that way, but the timing of the “Veep” episode was excellent. “GoT” gave them a much bigger audience.
Meanwhile, even Showtime’s “Billions” held its own against “Thrones.” They still managed 751,000 viewers, down just 100,000. So we’ll see how DVR viewing went over the next couple of days. I did have to DVR “Billions,” but it was worth it.
