The cast and crew of "Game of Thrones" accept the Outstanding Drama Series award onstage during the 71st Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on Sunday in Los Angeles, California. The drama series, which premiered on HBO in April 2011 and concluded after 73 episodes in May 2019, received a total of 58 Emmy awards including 4 Outstanding Drama series in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.
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LOS ANGELES - "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston opened the Emmy Awards on Sunday with a tribute to television's so-called golden era, as "Game of Thrones" and "Veep" take their final tilts at glory.
Cranston appeared on stage after a comedy skit which saw a cartoon Homer Simpson introduced as "host" -- and quickly crushed by a falling piano.
"Television has never been bigger. Television has never mattered more. And television has never been this damn good," said Cranston, stepping in to "rescue" the ceremony, which copied the Oscars this year by not appointing a host.
The long-running HBO smash hits helped the premium cable network raise the game for the small screen -- with 74 Emmys between them, they are among the most decorated shows ever at television's answer to the Oscars.
Both hope to add to their record hauls before they bow out at the glittering gala in downtown LA's Microsoft Theater.
While the divisive final season of "Thrones" enraged many fans, it is the Television Academy's 24,000-plus voters who get to choose the winners.
There is an "overwhelming" chance the blood-soaked fantasy epic will land the top drama series statuette, according to Pete Hammond, awards editor at entertainment news outlet Deadline.
"There was controversy over how it ended ... but that just shows the impact of this piece of television," he told AFP.
"I don't see anything in the category that can compare ... it's appointment television."
"Thrones" already bagged 10 Emmys in lesser categories at last week's Creative Arts Emmys, including for the show's special effects and elaborate costumes.
It needs three more statuettes to top its own record for most Emmys in a single season.
Nine of its stars -- including Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), Kit Harington (Jon Snow) and Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister) -- are in the running for acting prizes. They will all take to the stage as presenters too.
'DAGGER IN THE HEART'
Also on the star-studded list of presenters are Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Douglas and Julia Louis-Dreyfus -- who won six straight Emmys as foul-mouthed vice-president-turned-president Selina Meyer in political satire "Veep" but lost out this year to "Fleabag" creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
"Veep" won best comedy in 2015, 2016 and 2017, but took a forced hiatus last year as its star battled breast cancer.
It's back this year with a critically acclaimed final season.
If it can overcome stiff competition including "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel" -- Amazon's story of a 1950s housewife-turned-stand up comic -- HBO could achieve a rare clean sweep of all three major program categories.
"Chernobyl" -- HBO's drama about the 1986 nuclear catastrophe -- is a hot favorite for the limited series prize.
It faces off against Netflix's "When They See Us," the searing true story of five New York teenagers wrongly accused of raping a Central Park jogger.
If "Chernobyl" prevails, said Hammond, it will be "a dagger in the heart of Netflix," which despite hundreds of nominations has yet to win any of the top three program awards at the Emmys.
"The dominance of HBO this year -- they really could be setting a precedent," he said.
FINAL BOW
Another long-running popular show taking its final Emmys bow is "The Big Bang Theory," the throwback CBS sitcom about a group of geeky, young California scientists.
It only competes in one category, for directing, but its creators are unlikely to mind after all 12 seasons were purchased by HBO Max streaming service this week for a reported $500 million.
In the comedy categories, "Fleabag" has its first -- and apparently last -- stab at springing an Emmys surprise.
And it did.
Waller-Bridge won one of the first prizes handed out Sunday, for best comedy writing -- and then scooped the best actress award.
The British dark comedy acquired by Amazon was totally shunned by voters last year, failing to bag a single nomination, but its second season has grown into a phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic.
Waller-Bridge has ruled out a third season, saying the irreverent BBC series about a self-absorbed young Londoner has come "to a natural end."
Other early winners in comedy acting categories were Tony Shalhoub and Alex Borstein, both for "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel," and Bill Hader for "Barry."
Television's A-listers hit the red carpet under sunny skies -- and in oppressive heat.
Transgender actress Laverne Cox, nominated this year for Netflix series "Orange Is the New Black," carried a rainbow-colored clutch bag with the words "Oct 8. Title VII. Supreme Court."
The text is a reference to a potentially landmark Supreme Court hearing about employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin -- and whether that covers sexual orientation.
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George R.R. Martin is glad 'Game of Thrones' is over -- because now he can focus on finishing the book series.
The hit HBO fantasy drama series -- which concluded with its eighth and final season earlier this year -- was based on Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels, but eventually, the TV show overtook the material written by Martin, and so the show's writers were forced to deviate from the author's work.
Martin is currently working on the sixth and penultimate book in the series, "The Winds of Winter," and is yet to start work on the seventh, "A Dream of Spring," but says that now the TV show is over, he feels less pressure to get the work finished, which in turn has actually made him more productive.
He said: "There were a couple of years where, if I could have finished the book, I could have stayed ahead of the show for another couple of years, and the stress was enormous. I don't think it was very good for me, because the very thing that should have speeded me up actually slowed me down.
"Every day I sat down to write and even if I had a good day - and a good day for me is three or four pages - I'd feel terrible because I'd be thinking: 'My God, I have to finish the book. I've only written four pages when I should have written 40.' But having the show finish is freeing, because I'm at my own pace now. I have good days and I have bad days and the stress is far less, although it's still there ... I'm sure that when I finish 'A Dream of Spring' you'll have to tether me to the Earth."
The 70-year-old novelist insists the ending of the HBO show -- which has received mixed reviews from fans and critics -- has no bearing on his own plan for his books, and says although the show is based on his novels, the two bodies of work are "not the same thing."
He added: "They're not the same thing, although they are very closely related to each other. It doesn't change anything at all ... As Rick Nelson says in Garden Party, one of my favourite songs, you can't please everybody, so you've got to please yourself."
And although he admits the TV show hindered his writing progress, he's pleased his work could bring out so many "emotional reactions" in people.
Speaking to The Observer newspaper, he said: "I'm glad of the emotional reactions, whether to the books or the television show, because that's what fiction is all about -- emotion. If you want to make an intellectual argument or persuade someone, then write an essay or a piece of journalism, write nonfiction. Fiction ... should feel as if you're living these things when you read or watch them. If you're so distanced by it that a character dies and you don't care, then to an extent the author has failed."
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SAN DIEGO -- The "Game of Thrones" cast leapt to the defense of its much-maligned final season in front of a boisterous crowd at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, blaming the backlash on negative media coverage.
The HBO fantasy epic's conclusion enraged fans around the world, and organizers of the pop culture convention reminded attendees before the retrospective panel to make the cast "feel welcome."
While the cast drew a rapturous reception, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau -- who played Jaime Lannister -- was booed after describing his character's death in the arms of his sister and lover Cersei as "perfect."
"It made sense to me," said the actor, before being interrupted by a heckler.
"This show has brought so many people together, watching it, loving it. So obviously when it comes to an end it's going to piss you off no matter what... just don't call people names," he added.
An online petition to HBO to remake the final season with "competent writers" was signed by 1.6 million people.
The panel was billed as the show creators' first public outing following the backlash.
But showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss quietly withdrew along with two cast members earlier in the week.
The remaining members expressed support for the final season. Conleth Hill -- who played Varys -- described the fan response to the show over the years as extremely positive, referring to the negativity as a "media-led hate campaign."
The atmosphere quickly lightened as cast members joked about stealing props from the set.
John Bradley, known to fans as Samwell Tarly, addressed another controversy, shooting down theories that he was to blame for a plastic water bottle accidentally left in shot during the final season.
"Pardon me for being thirsty," he joked.
TV takes over
After Hollywood film stars Tom Cruise and Arnold Schwarzenegger dominated Thursday's opening day, television took center stage at Comic-Con Friday.
Netflix surprised attendees by screening the first episode of "The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance," its upcoming prequel series to Jim Henson's classic 1982 fantasy film.
Its combination of old-fashioned puppetry and cutting-edge visual effects aims to cast a spell on old and young alike.
Mark Hamill and "Rocketman" star Taron Egerton -- who both provide voices -- appeared in a panel discussion.
Fan favorite Hamill was presented with Comic-Con's "Icon Award," telling the audience he felt lucky "to be able to do all the things I loved as a kid and get paid for it."
"This is just seems wildly excessive," the "Star Wars" actor joked about the accolade, before serenading the crowd with his "Buddi" song from the film "Child's Play."
Amazon Prime wheeled out "Carnival Row," starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne, which is set in a fantastical Victorian-esque world filled with mythological immigrant creatures.
Bloom said it was a "great gift and opportunity" to be in a show which was "so timely and... spoke to a lot of the issues with relevance to what's happening in the world today."
AMC used its annual "Walking Dead" franchise panels to confirm veteran Danai Gurira -- who appeared in the recent blockbuster "Avengers" movies -- will depart the zombie show.
Gurira, who first appeared on the series in 2012, received a standing ovation.
Plans were also teased for a series of films starring Andrew Lincoln, who announced his own departure from the show -- the highest rated series in cable television history -- at last year's Comic-Con.
Avengers eye record
Earlier, "Avengers: Endgame" directors Joe and Anthony Russo said it would be a "big thrill" to pass the all-time box office record held by "Avatar," as they set out plans to collaborate with a number of different stars from the Marvel superhero universe.
"Endgame" is inching ever closer to surpassing James Cameron’s $2.788 billion haul. It is currently just $5 million short, and was still playing in 1,400 US theaters at the weekend despite being released in April.
"James Cameron has always been an idol of ours... to be so close to one of his great films is really special," said Anthony.
The filmmaking brothers said their next project "Cherry," starring "Spider-Man" actor Tom Holland, will be a "mature" and "complicated" look at the US opioid crisis.
"It's touched our families, the crisis, so it's a deeply personal movie for us," said Anthony. Filming will begin in October.
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LOS ANGELES—HBO and its medieval fantasy series "Game of Thrones" led nominations on Tuesday for the Emmy awards, the highest honors in television.
HBO got a leading 137 nominations, 32 of them for three-times best drama series winner "Game of Thrones," and recognition for lead actors Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke. The 32 nods for "Game of Thrones," which concluded its final season in May, marked a record high for a drama program in a single year.
Netflix followed with 117 nominations, led by its searing racial justice drama "When They See Us," and surreal time-loop comedy "Russian Doll."
Amazon Studio's bubbly "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel" got 20 nominations, making it a strong contender for a repeat win in the best-comedy series category, while HBO's limited series "Chernobyl," a recreation of the 1986 Russian nuclear power disaster, had 19.
Political satire "Veep" will compete for its fourth Emmy as best comedy series, along with star Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Other contenders in the comedy series category are "Barry," quirky British show "Fleabag," "The Good Place," "Russian Doll" and "Schitt's Creek."
Joining "Game of Thrones" in the top category of best drama series are "Better Call Saul," British thrillers "Bodyguard" and "Killing Eve," "Ozark," transgender show "Pose", family drama "This is Us" and media mogul dynasty series "Succession."
The Emmy awards will be handed out at a ceremony in Los Angeles on Sept. 22. (Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Lisa Richwine; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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LOS ANGELES - "Game of Thrones" and Netflix are tipped by TV industry watchers to dominate Tuesday's Emmy nominations as Hollywood gears up for awards season.
The Television Academy's 24,000 members sifted through a record number of entries for this year's Emmys, the small-screen equivalent of the Oscars.
After nominations are announced final-round voting will begin to pick winners who will be revealed at a glitzy Los Angeles show on September 22.
Here are five things to look out for:
'GAME OF THRONES'
"Game of Thrones" enraged fans with its final season, but experts still expect the HBO fantasy epic to reign over Emmy nominations one last time.
"Thrones" is the most decorated fictional show in the awards' seven-decade history, with 128 nominations and 47 wins.
The last six episodes dominated water-cooler chat and settled the question of who would sit on the Iron Throne -- sort of -- but the flood of social media anguish over its unsatisfying conclusion almost broke the internet.
Still, voters could pick the show out of "nostalgia" and because "they want to pay respect for the impact it's had on TV overall," said Indiewire TV critic Ben Travers.
"But it also could be a lack of options," he added.
MAJOR ABSENTEES
The Emmys only recognize shows that were on in the 12 months to May 31.
That means several big hitters are absent from main categories this year, including Hulu's former drama series winner "The Handmaid's Tale."
"Big Little Lies" and "Stranger Things" also just missed the cut-off -- something which may not be accidental.
"Some of the more prominent shows got out of the way fearing 'Game of Thrones' just dominating everything, and not wanting to go head to head with it," said Travers.
COMEDY REIGNS
Pundits say the comedy and limited series categories are vastly stronger this year.
In comedy, White House satire "Veep" -- another departing HBO awards juggernaut -- faces stiff competition from last year's winner "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," Amazon's story of a 1950s housewife-turned-stand up comic.
Dark hitman comedy "Barry" is also expected to challenge its HBO stablemate.
In limited series, Showtime has vigorously promoted Ben Stiller's "Escape at Dannemora," in which two real-life convicts escape a New York prison by seducing a female employee.
"When They See Us," Netflix's true story of five men wrongly accused of raping a Central Park jogger, is also likely to line up, alongside acclaimed HBO drama "Chernobyl."
NETFLIX VS HBO
The two giants are set to renew their battle for overall Emmy supremacy, after Netflix overtook HBO last year in the nomination count to end its rival's 17-year reign.
Web streamer Netflix secured a whopping 112 nods last time around, edging out HBO's 108.
"The sheer amount of programming that Netflix submits at the Emmys is daunting," said Travers. "They have so much more than anybody else to put on the ballot."
While Netflix also benefits from the exposure that comes with its huge subscriber base, HBO has vast experience mounting campaigns for its prestige offerings -- and could ultimately garner more wins.
STAR QUALITY
As movie stars continue to switch to TV, A-listers will be plentiful.
Amazon is eyeing a strong year with its Julia Roberts-powered thriller "Homecoming," in addition to "Maisel" and irreverent British comedy "Fleabag."
"Catch-22" leads Hulu's charge thanks to George Clooney, while in comedy Jim Carrey ("Kidding") and Michael Douglas ("The Kominsky Method") are tipped for acting nods.
amz/ft
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MANILA - Avid viewers of “Game of Thrones” are probably still suffering from separation anxiety.
Understandably so, as it has only been two days since the phenomenal HBO drama series aired its final episode after being on air for nearly a decade.
Riding on the hype of its success, some commercial establishments have come up with their respective gimmicks to immortalize the series.
In Manila, a local hotel chain decided to make available to its guests a Throne Party Suite, which imitates the Red Keep.
As seen on its Facebook post, Victoria Court designed its suite with an imitation of the Iron Throne.
“If you could relive any of the tragic love stories of Westeros, whose would you choose? Give the fated couples your own spin with some role playing action in The Throne Party Suite,” the Facebook post reads.
The finale of "Game of Thrones" drew a staggering 19.3 million viewers in the US Sunday evening, cementing the fantasy epic's status as the most watched television series in HBO history.
The streaming service said the record number of viewers was across all platforms -- HBO, HBO Go, and HBO NOW -- and exceeded the previous series high of 18.4 million viewers set last week. – with report from Agence France Presse
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After eight seasons and 73 episodes, HBO's long-running smash "Game of Thrones" came to its conclusion on Sunday night, with one more shocking demise and an unlikely character named as king.
With its last episode, which ran roughly 1 hour and 20 minutes, the medieval fantasy series, based on the novels of George R.R. Martin, wrapped up the storyline for more than a dozen characters and intertwining plots.
The show's fierce competition for the fictional Iron Throne -- the seat for the show's ruler, made out of hundreds of swords -- ended first with a death, and an unexpected choice to rule the show's fictional kingdom of Westeros.
It brings to a conclusion a show that became the cornerstone of HBO's primetime offerings, but its final season was also its most divisive, with both fans and critics finding specific plot developments -- particularly its handling of one of the primary characters -- troubling.
The final season has broken records for HBO, which says it has so far averaged 43 million viewers per episode in the United States alone -- an increase of 10 million over Season 7 in 2017.
Most notable in fans' criticism was the malevolent turn by Emilia Clarke's Daenerys Targaryen, the "Dragon Queen," who used her dragon to lay waste to the show's fictional capital after her enemies had surrendered.
The move angered fans, as the episode, titled "The Bells," currently garners the weakest ratings amongst all episodes in the show's eight-season run on Rottentomatoes.com, which aggregates critics' reviews.
Clarke's character had engaged in brutal actions in previous seasons, similar to other leaders depicted in the story, but the decision to kill tens of thousands of innocent people was viewed by many as too drastic based on the character's previous actions.
From its ragged beginnings -- the show's original pilot was never aired, instead undergoing substantial re-shoots and re-casting of several characters -- it became a cultural phenomenon. Its budgets grew, with a per-episode cost in its last season running as high as $15 million per episode, according to Variety. It also won numerous primetime television Emmy Awards, including three awards for Best Drama.
It became known for unexpected, nerve-wracking moments, including the first season's death of Eddard Stark, the nobleman played by Sean Bean, featured heavily in the show's marketing campaign, and Season 3's "Red Wedding," a massacre of critical characters in the show's fictional wars that author Martin drew from medieval Scottish history.
HBO already is in the planning stages for a prequel series to take place thousands of years prior to the show's fictional timeline, while its creators, Dan Weiss and David Benioff, are slated to make the next series of "Star Wars" films.
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LOS ANGELES -- After eight epic years of chivalry, sex, death and dragons, "Game of Thrones" fans worldwide have just 79 pulsating minutes remaining Sunday to get their final fix in one of the most hotly anticipated events in TV history.
The blood-spattered tale of noble families vying for the Iron Throne has just one episode to go and buzz is at fever pitch for a ratings juggernaut that has demolished audience records like a Dothraki barbarian finishing off a skillet of horse meat.
"We want people to love it. It matters a lot to us. We've spent 11 years doing this," Dan Weiss, who directed the 73rd and final episode with fellow showrunner David Benioff, told Entertainment Weekly.
While many will watch at home, perhaps with a goblet of Dornish red wine and a punnet of Braavosi cockles, thousands will celebrate and mourn the show's denouement at viewing parties in bars, banqueting halls and backyards from Alaska to Armenia.
One of the darkest and most controversial primetime series ever made, "GoT" has been the target of criticism over the years for senseless violence and its repeated use of rape as a dramatic device.
Hacked, burned, flayed
The scriptwriters have brutalized women, killed children, depicted graphic sex and had their characters hacked, stabbed, flayed, poisoned, decapitated, burned alive, eye-gouged and eviscerated -- all in glorious close-up.
Even principal character Jon Snow (Kit Harington), whose fellow Night's Watch troops would chant "And now his watch is ended" at comrades' funerals, suffered the indignity of being briefly dead after a particularly violent quarrel.
The adult themes have not deterred fans, however, nor the industry itself, which has seen fit to make it the most decorated series in history, with 47 Emmy Awards.
Airing in 170 countries under its portentous tagline, "Winter is Coming," the show is also the most expensive ever, with a budget of $15 million per episode in its final run.
The season seven finale set an all-time US record for premium cable TV with 16.5 million people watching live or streaming on the day of transmission and 15 million more tuning in later.
Viewing records also tumbled across the world, with Britain's Sky Atlantic and OCS in France showing episodes in the middle of the night in sync with their US premieres.
Season 6 was the first to move beyond the source material, George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels, and carve its own path.
Critics said it marked a return to form, with the narrative allowing female characters to demonstrate complexity and moral agency lacking in some of the earlier seasons.
The shortened final two seasons have been more of a mixed bag, with many fans furious over what they consider poor writing.
Mass-murdering madness
Most controversial has been the rapid descent into mass-murdering madness by Emilia Clarke's fan favorite Daenerys Targaryen, arguably the lead character in an enormous ensemble that has called on the services of such luminaries as Charles Dance, Sean Bean, Jim Broadbent and Diana Rigg.
A Change.org petition called "Remake Game of Thrones Season 8 with competent writers" had passed one million signatures with more than 24 hours to go until Sunday's finale.
Assuming there is no do-over, the biggest mystery of all remains who will be sitting on the Iron Throne and ruling Westeros when "Game of Thrones" comes to an end.
To throw hackers and pirates off the scent, Benioff and Weiss shot several versions of the final episode, a tactic already used for "The Sopranos" and "Breaking Bad."
Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, has admitted that even she was fooled into believing a fake version of the ending.
Martin will himself discover the on-screen ending of his long-running masterwork before he has had a chance to conclude the fantasy on paper.
The plot lines for his long-awaited final two novels in the series -- "The Winds of Winter" and "A Dream of Spring" -- were adapted to the screen based on outlines Martin gave the show's writers. But there is no guarantee they will stick to his plan.
"Obviously, I wished I finished these books sooner so the show hadn't gotten ahead of me. I never anticipated that," Martin once told an interviewer.
The "Game of Thrones" finale premieres on HBO at 9 p.m. in the US on both coasts (Monday morning in Manila).
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NEW YORK, United States – As "Game of Thrones" suits up for one last swordfight, a phalanx of enraged viewers large enough to flatten the massed armies of Westeros is voicing its displeasure over what they consider a botched ending to the beloved show -- with some even clamoring for a do-over.
Since its first episode eight years ago the HBO show about noble families vying for the Iron Throne has picked up just about every award going on the way to becoming a global ratings smash and a cultural phenomenon.
But its legacy is under threat from an increasingly vocal section of fans furious over what they consider poor writing in the shortened final two seasons, after the script had moved beyond the source novels by American writer George R.R. Martin.
A Change.org petition called "Remake Game of Thrones Season 8 with competent writers" was approaching 850,000 signatures early Friday, ahead of Sunday's finale.
"There's been a lot of negativity about the windup, but I think it's just because people don't want ANY ending," tweeted horror author Stephen King, one of the show's most high-profile fans.
"But you know what they say: All good things..."
One source of discontent is a dramatically sped-up narrative arc that has seen central character Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) descend suddenly and incongruously into atrocity-committing madness.
"Turning one of the top two heroes in the game into a villain is something that you have to really set up straight... to have the fan base just go along with it," said entertainment host A. Ron Hubbard on his top-rated "Game of Thrones: The Podcast."
"It's just that I don't think they did the job particularly well."
Other fans are equally bewildered by the moral regression of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's Jaime Lannister -- an unambiguous bad guy back in 2011 whose redemptive arc over seven seasons was one of the most interesting aspects of the show's scrupulous, patient plotting.
"It feels like some of the characters' arcs are false because they're not given enough time to play out," said University of Northern Illinois medieval history professor Valerie Garver, who accused showrunners David Benioff and D.B Weiss of "rushing" the truncated, 6-episode final season.
MILLIONS OF SICK DAYS
The effect has been to lower expectations to such an extent that many fans are complaining about a denouement they have yet to even see.
"I'm really disappointed in Next Sunday night's finale of 'Game of Thrones,'" joked Brent Spiner, who played android Data in "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
More than 100,000 people voted on the Internet Movie Database to give Season 8's penultimate episode 6.1 out of 10, a harsh rating for a show that had never rated lower than 8.1 in previous seasons.
"This show is just so good and has been so important that even if most people are upset with the ending I think still it will be held up as a show that was pretty extraordinary," said Garver.
And if the social media backlash looks harsh, it is worth remembering that the vast majority of any show's viewers do not immediately take to Twitter with their comments if they liked what they saw.
The proof of this can be found in the "Game of Thrones" audience figures, which hit a record 12.5 million live US viewers for the most recent episode -- with a further 6 million watching later.
For perspective, one of the show's nearest premium cable rivals, Showtime's "Homeland," managed 1.2 million viewers per episode in 2018 and "The Sopranos," regarded as HBO's greatest show, would pull in 11 million a week at its 2002 peak.
There's little reason to expect anything but phenomenal figures for the feature-length "GoT" finale, with an estimated 10.7 million Americans expected to skip work the following morning to catch up, according to a survey by The Workforce Institute at Kronos.
'ASH AND BRICK'
Back in the fictional continent of Westeros, the biggest mystery of "Game of Thrones" remains: who will be sitting on the Iron Throne as ruler of the Seven Kingdoms when the curtain comes down?
British bookmaker William Hill has 20-year-old Isaac Hempstead Wright's Bran Stark as favorite, closely followed by his fictional sister Sansa, played by Sophie Turner.
That assumes, of course, that the Iron Throne still exists after Mother of Dragons Daenerys went full "Mad Queen" last week -- torching most of Dubrovnik, the real-life Croatian double for the Westerosi royal seat of King's Landing.
"The Iron Throne is very much gone, as is most of the population in the capital of the Seven Kingdoms," the bookmaker said on its website.
"Is it actually possible for anyone to inherit a mountain of ash and brick?"
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LOS ANGELES - Passions are running high as "Game of Thrones" nears its final episode this weekend, with hundreds of thousands of unhappy fans signing an online petition and a counseling service offering to help those grieving the end of the TV fantasy saga.
Some 600,000 fans worldwide had signed a Change.org petition by Thursday criticizing Season 8 of the HBO series and calling for a remake.
"This series deserves a final season that makes sense," said Dylan D, from Texas, who launched the "Remake Game of Thrones Season 8" petition ahead of Sunday's series finale.
The story of warring families in the fictional kingdom of Westeros has drawn to a close with ever more bloody battles and favorite characters being killed off.
"Season 8 was very disjointed and rushed. Characters were hastily written off and plots became twisted. It was not a good close to a great series," wrote Marilyn Marnell, one of those signing the petition.
HBO did not return a request for comment on the petition.
The show was created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who have taken the story beyond George R.R. Martin's source material book series, "A Song of Ice and Fire."
Despite the criticism, the eighth and final season of the Emmy-winning series has broken records for HBO, which says it has so far averaged 43 million viewers per episode in the United States alone - a 10 million increase over Season 7 in 2017.
Among television critics, reviews have gone from 92 percent positive for the Season 8 opener on April 14 to 47 percent favorable for the penultimate episode, "The Bells," which aired on May 12, according to review aggregator RottenTomatoes.com.
"The Bells" saw character Daenerys Targaryen descending into madness and destroying the Westerosi capital of Kings Landing with her dragon. Some fans thought that was too sharp a departure for Daenerys, who had previously said she wanted to create a better world.
"This is definitely not how it was supposed to go. Daenerys Targaryen has gone rogue," wrote CNN.com's AJ Willingham.
Meanwhile, British website Bark.com is launching a "Game of Thrones" counseling service offering expert advice on how fans can deal with the loss of the show, which first aired in 2011.
"'Game of Thrones' is one of the most popular TV programs of our time, so I'm not surprised that people are devastated it's going to end," Kai Feller, co-founder of Bark.com, said in a statement.
"I think there will be a fair amount of superfans out there who will need to chat with a professional when the show ends."
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LOS ANGELES, United States - "Game of Thrones" may be a medieval fantasy but Sunday's episode had a distinctly modern touch when a stray Starbucks cup made an unexpected cameo in the fictional Westeros kingdom of dragons and zombies, sending fans into a frenzy.
The distinctive paper cup with plastic cover was spotted on a table at a feast in Winterfell within reach of characters Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen during episode 4 of the final season, "The Last of the Starks."
Bernie Caulfield, one of the executive producers of HBO's global hit television series, apologized to fans.
"I can't believe (it)," she said in an interview with New York's WNYC radio on Monday. "Our onset prop people and decorators are so on it a 1,000 percent."
"We're sorry! Westeros was the first place to actually have Starbucks," Caulfield quipped.
In a tongue-in-cheek comment, HBO said that "the latte that appeared in the episode was a mistake. Daenerys had ordered an herbal tea."
Starbucks, the world's biggest coffee chain, had its own take on the unexpected publicity in a series that is watched by more than 30 million people in the United States alone.
"TBH we're surprised she didn't order a Dragon Drink," the company said on Twitter, referring to its summer menu addition of a bright pink fruit and coconut milk beverage that contains the tropical dragon fruit, also known as pitaya.
Fans lit up social media with memes and jokes about the stray cup, with some inserting the company's green and white logo on photos of castles featured in the series.
Others were dismayed at the gaffe. "They took 2 years to shoot 6 episodes and left a Starbucks cup in a scene," tweeted a user named Dylan.
The eighth and final season of "Game of Thrones" has broken records for HBO, with more than 38 million American watching the season premiere episode that was broadcast on April 14.
The Emmy-winning series, an adaptation of George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series of novels, comes to a conclusion on May 19.
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LOS ANGELES - Some 17.4 million Americans watched the first episode of the final season of television's "Game of Thrones" - a record audience for the medieval fantasy series, cable channel HBO said on Monday.
HBO said Sunday's live US television audience and viewers on its HBO GO and HBO NOW apps exceeded the previous series high of 16.9 million viewers for the Season 7 finale two years ago.
On social media, Sunday's premiere was also the most-tweeted-about episode of the show ever, with more than 5 million Tweets, and 11 million mentions throughout the course of the weekend, HBO said in a statement.
All of the top 10 global Twitter trends late Sunday evening were about the episode.
The series set among warring families in the fictional kingdom of Westeros, which began in 2007, has become HBO's biggest hit.
Season 7 averaged 32.8 million US viewers per episode when delayed viewing was counted and HBO said it expected the Season 8 average to "grow considerably."
"Game of Thrones" is available in over 150 countries worldwide, but HBO said viewing data is not easily retrieved in many of those markets, making a global figure impossible to calculate.
Details of the final season have been kept a closely guarded secret, boosting anticipation.
The most-tweeted moment from Sunday's show came when popular "Thrones" character Jon Snow (played by Kit Harington) learned the truth about his parents, and the fact that his love interest, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), is in fact his aunt.
Despite its avid fan base, "Game of Thrones" is far from the biggest television event in the United States. The annual NFL Super Bowl attracts about 100 million viewers and the 2019 Oscars ceremony in February was watched on television by 29.6 million Americans.
The final episode of "Game of Thrones" will air on May 19.
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MUNICH - If you are a "Game of Thrones" fan and appreciate the element of surprise, stop reading now.
Students at the Technical University of Munich have developed an application to predict which character has the best chance to claim the coveted Iron Throne in the HBO hit medieval fantasy series about warring families.
They have taught the application to scour the web for information about each of the characters, which is then processed by artificial intelligence algorithms to assess their survival chances.
"We scraped the results from different Wiki pages and Wiki-like pages about the books and TV show and we took out data like gender and age of the characters," said student Christian Dallago. "We put all this together to train the algorithm to tell us when this character is going to die."
There is a good chance the application will get it right.
Back in 2016, an algorithm created by computer science students at the same university in the southern German city shortly before the start of Season 6 accurately predicted that Jon Snow would resurrect.
If you're still reading, clearly you're not a fan of plot twists and turns.
So here you go: AI says that Daenerys Targaryen has the best chance of survival in the final season, which starts on Sunday.
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The end is near for the hit television show and probably most of its characters as the trailer for the final season of 'Game of Thrones' was release by HBO on Tuesday night.
The series, based on the novels by George R.R. Martin, has thrilled audiences around the world with its ruthless killings of popular characters.
The trailer shows all the key players (with a few exceptions) as they prepare to unite against the White Walkers who are threatening the fictional realm of Westeros.
However, aside from their common enemy, there is still Westeros' Iron Throne to compete and kill for. Secrecy has been steep around the production and fans have been theorizing as to which character might end up ruling Westeros.
The final series of 'Game of Thrones' begins on April 14.
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LOS ANGELES -- "Game of Thrones" and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" won the top prizes at the Emmy awards on Monday on a night of upsets for the highest honors in television and a triumph for streaming services.
Dystopian female show "The Handmaid's Tale" and FX's surreal hip-hop comedy "Atlanta" were the biggest losers, taking none of the most prestigious awards and making a disappointing night for stars Elisabeth Moss and Donald Glover.
HBO's medieval fantasy "Game of Thrones" won a total of nine Emmys, including technical awards for special effects and stunts, and was named best drama series for a third time, beating last year's champion "The Handmaid's Tale."
Netflix, which had a leading 112 nominations going into the Emmys, ended up tying HBO for the most wins, with 23 apiece.
Amazon's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," about a 1950s housewife who turns to standup comedy, took home the Emmy for best comedy series. "Mrs. Maisel" also won a total of seven other awards, including best actress for Rachel Brosnahan.
Claire Foy beat Moss to win for her quiet but formidable portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in Netflix drama "The Crown."
"This wasn't supposed to happen," said a surprised Foy.
Matthew Rhys took his first best drama actor Emmy for playing a conflicted Russian spy in the final season of the FX Cold War series "The Americans."
"Saturday Night Live" won, as expected, for variety sketch series, taking its lifetime Emmy total to a record-setting 72 wins since 1975.
Emmy hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost from "Saturday Night Live" sprinkled the evening with skits and jokes about diversity on television, sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry, and the power of streaming services like Amazon and Netflix.
"It is an honor to be here sharing this night with the many, many talented and creative people in Hollywood who haven’t been caught yet," Che said, alluding to the dozens of men who have been fired or forced to resign in the past year because of sexual harassment allegations.
"We solved it!" sang a line-up of celebrities, giving themselves a tongue-in-cheek pat on the back for the strides television has made for women, people of color, and gay men and women behind and in front of the camera.
But despite one of the most ethnically diverse array of nominees, only Regina King ("Seven Seconds") Thandie Newton ("Westworld") and RuPaul ("RuPaul's Drag Race") made it to the winners podium.
"I don't even believe in God, but I am going to thank her tonight," Newton said.
Other big winners included "The Assassination of Gianni Versace," for best limited series and actor Darren Criss, who played the gay serial killer who murdered the Italian designer in Miami in 1997. Creator Ryan Murphy dedicated the Emmy to the LGBT community.
One of the biggest shocks came when presumed front-runner Glover lost the comedy acting category to Bill Hader's hitman-turned-struggling actor in HBO's showbusiness satire "Barry."
"Barry" also brought honors for veteran Henry Winkler, winning a standing ovation and his first-ever Emmy for his supporting role as a self-important acting teacher.
Yet the warmest applause came when Glenn Weiss used his acceptance speech for directing the televised 2018 Academy Awards show to propose to his girlfriend in the audience, Jan Svendsen. She said yes.
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HBO's fantasy epic "Game of Thrones" led the field for television's prestigious Primetime Emmy awards on Thursday, with a whopping 22 nominations, including one for best drama series.
The show about noble families vying for the Iron Throne faces tough competition from perennial favorite comedy sketch show "Saturday Night Live" and HBO stablemate "Westworld" with 21 nominations each.
Hulu's "A Handmaid's Tale"—which won the award for best drama series last year—earned 20 nods.
"The Assassination of Gianni Versace," one of the few serious contenders this year that can claim to be entirely new, picked up an impressive 18 nominations.
Part of FX's "American Crime Story" strand from the mind of Emmys mainstay Ryan Murphy, it is the follow-up to the acclaimed "The People v. O. J. Simpson" (2016).
The series had been expected to dominate the acting races among the limited series and TV movies—and indeed it did, with Darren Criss, Penelope Cruz, Edgar Ramirez and Ricky Martin all nominated.
HBO awards darling "Veep" was ineligible this year and its crown passed to "Atlanta," the FX comedy created by and starring Donald Glover, which amassed 16 nods.
Samira Wiley, nominated for guest actress in "The Handmaid's Tale," and Ryan Eggold ("New Amsterdam") presented the nominations from the Television Academy in Los Angeles.
Leading the nominations in totals by platform were Netflix (112), leapfrogging last year's leader HBO, which scored 108. Adrift in third was NBC with 78 nods.
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Kit Harington and Rose Leslie, who played on-screen lovers Jon Snow and Ygritte in fantasy TV saga "Game of Thrones", were married in Britain on Saturday.
The 31-year-old stars are reported to be tying the knot in northeastern Scotland, with co-stars Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen, and Peter Dinklage, who played Tyrion Lannister, arriving at nearby Aberdeen on Friday.
The couple, who met on set in 2012, announced the engagement in the Times newspaper last September, and the wedding date was submitted to the local registry office last month.
The ceremony is to be held at the remote Wardhill Castle in Aberdeenshire, which has been in Leslie's family for 900 years, according to the Daily Mail.
She left the show in 2014, but Harington's iconic character has appeared in every episode.
Harington told L'Uomo Vogue that the on-screen romance contributed to the pair getting together, after filming in Iceland in 2012.
"The country is beautiful ... the Northern Lights are magical ... it was there that I fell in love," he said.
"If you're already attracted to someone, and then they play your love interest in the show, it becomes very easy to fall in love."
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“Game of Thrones” star Sophie Turner and musician Joe Jonas surprised
their fans on Monday (Manila time) as they announced their engagement
on Instagram.
A photo of Turner’s left hand with an engagement ring was posted on
both their Instagram accounts. Turner wrote “I said yes” in the caption,
while Jonas said “She said yes.”
LONDON (Reuters) - "Game of Thrones" actors Kit Harington and Rose Leslie, who enjoyed an on-screen romance in the HBO television hit series, announced their engagement in Britain’s Times newspaper on Wednesday.
Harington, who plays Jon Snow in the fantasy drama, met Leslie, who played Ygritte, in 2011 while filming the second season of the Emmy-winning show in Iceland.
“If you’re already attracted to someone, and then they play your love interest in the show, it becomes very easy to fall in love,” Harington told Vogue magazine in an interview last year.
The British duo, both 30, had only a brief on-screen romance before Leslie’s character, Ygritte, died in the arms of Snow in season four. Her final words, “You know nothing, Jon Snow,” have became one of the show’s most famous lines.
(The story corrects spelling of Harington’s surname from Harrington.)
Writing by Patrick Johnston. Editing by Larry King
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