The daily Astorian., April 25, 2019, Page 23, Image 21

THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019 // 23
HBO looks beyond ‘Game of Th rones,’ maybe back to a prequel
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONS
HBO via AP Kit Harington as Jon Snow, left, and Emilia Clarke
as Daenerys Targaryen are pictured a scene from ‘Game of
Thrones.’
to begin shooting a pilot
in June, it’s among several
potential “Thrones” spinoffs
being weighed, with discus-
sions at HBO about “how
many is too many,” said
programming chief Casey
Bloys.
“We have high hopes”
for the pilot, he said. “But I
want to be clear, nobody is
going into this thinking that
we’re going to do a prequel
and all of a sudden every-
body who automatically
watched ‘Game of Thrones’
is going to watch this. ... It’ll
have a different feel and dif-
ferent rhythm. We’re not
trying to do the same show
again.”
That begs the question of
what more HBO has to offer,
he said. During a period in
which “Game of Thrones”
was off the air for schedul-
ing reasons, series includ-
ing “Westworld,” ‘’Sharp
Objects” and “Barry”
proved strong draws, Bloys
said.
“I’m not going to argue
that we won’t miss ‘Game
of Thrones.’ It’s been a fan-
tastic show for us, but life
does go on,” he said. He
points to a deep bench of
returnees, including Nicole
Kidman and Reese Wither-
spoon’s “Big Little Lies,”
and newcomers includ-
ing the graphic novel-based
“Watchmen” from “Lost”
producer Damon Linde-
lof. One marquee series
that’s also in its fi nal sea-
son: the much-admired
comedy “Veep,” with Julia
Louis-Dreyfus.
HBO, which launched
in 1972 and whose cachet
has long justifi ed the boast-
ful slogan, “It’s not TV. It’s
HBO,” has reached this
crossroads before. At the
turn of the century, pop-cul-
ture sensations “The Sopra-
nos” and “Sex and the
City” boosted the chan-
nel’s visibility and subscrib-
ers and made it a serious
player for prestige awards
— including cable’s fi rst-
ever Emmys for best drama
and comedy series. After the
shows wrapped, the chan-
nel moved nimbly on with
audience-pleasers including
“Six Feet Under” and “True
Blood.”
But that was then, and
this is the time of streaming
— or, in shorthand, Netfl ix,
along with a growing host
of others including Amazon
and Hulu — and a shoul-
der-bumping rush for stars
and showmakers to churn
out more and more fare for
outlets already awash in
programming.
HBO, no longer a sin-
gular alternative to staid
broadcast networks, also got
new corporate ownership
when AT&T bought its par-
ent company, Time Warner.
HBO recently saw the exit
of its chief executive, Rich-
ard Plepler, who had been
with the channel for nearly
30 years and guided it to
“Game of Thrones” glory.
With AT&T’s resources,
HBO has stepped up pro-
duction and will see a 50%
increase in the number of
original program hours this
year, Bloys said, arguing
that volume doesn’t preclude
high quality: “There’s noth-
ing in 2019 that we’re put-
ting on the air because we’re
trying to hit an hour count.
10% OFF
... We haven’t lowered any
of our standards to reach a
certain level of program-
ming” and there is no pres-
sure to do otherwise from
WarnerMedia CEO John
Stankey, he said.
Subscribers ultimately
will decide whether the
shows are what they want.
But expanding the pipeline
is unavoidable, said Tuna
Amobi, a media and enter-
tainment analyst with invest-
ment fi rm CFRA.
“It’s a very differ-
ent competitive landscape
for HBO than it was when
they launched ‘Game of
Thrones,’ and they real-
ize that. That’s why you
see them ratcheting up their
investments in their pro-
gramming,” Amobi said.
Also key is how HBO’s
online platform is integrated
with planned WarnerMedia
streaming offerings to reach
the broadest audience possi-
ble and make full use of its
content, he added.
HBO “cannot rely on the
old ways of doing things and
hope that being a premium
channel will bail you out,”
he said.
“Game of Thrones,”
which debuted in 2011, has
fl ourished despite the con-
founding number of small-
screen choices. From its
fi rst-season average weekly
tally of 9.3 million cumula-
tive viewers, the series rose
to a seventh-season high of
32.8 million across all HBO
platforms, including the
channel itself and stream-
ing services HBO Go and
HBO Now and over a period
extending 30 days beyond
the season’s end.
It benefi ted from the
devoted following for Mar-
tin’s “A Song of Ice and
Fire” clutch of novels. It was
richly and painstakingly pro-
duced, fi lmed in 10 coun-
tries including Northern
Ireland, the Republic of Ire-
land, Morocco, Iceland and
Canada. Its appealing cast
became household names,
and the female characters that
grew in stature and strength
as the drama unfolded are
routinely namechecked as
part of the female-empower-
ment zeitgeist.
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LOS ANGELES —
When the last drop — or
gallon — of blood is shed
and an exultant victor has
ascended to the Iron Throne,
viewers may be split over
how HBO’s fantasy saga
ended but they’ll be joined
in deprivation.
“What do you do without
‘Game of Thrones?’” will
be the lament heard after the
May 19 fi nale, said media
industry analyst Larry Ger-
brandt. The question is even
more critical to the pay-ca-
ble channel, which soared
on dragon’s wings with its
hugely popular, eight-season
adaptation of George R.R.
Martin’s novels.
Keeping subscribers on
board means more than
another hit, even one as
globally dazzling as “Game
of Thrones” proved to be.
But it’s where HBO can start
to protect its brand and posi-
tion, observers say, an effort
both demanded and com-
pounded by an increasingly
congested small-screen land-
scape and the expectations
of the channel’s corporate
owner since 2016, AT&T.
“I think they need a pres-
tige show on this level to
remain HBO,” Bill Carter,
a media analyst for CNN
and former reporter for The
New York Times. But “more
than ever, it’s really hard to
fi nd a hit show and to break
through in this marketplace.”
Sunday’s season premiere
underscored the point, with
“Game of Thrones” drawing
a series-high record of 17.4
million viewers on TV and
streaming . It set a streaming
record for HBO and rein-
forced its standing as one
of television’s most popular
shows.
The channel is well into
the hunt for a worthy suc-
cessor, with one possibility
an untitled prequel to “Game
of Thrones” created by Mar-
tin and Jane Goldman and
starring Naomi Watts. Set
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