How did the Game of Thrones season 8 premiere compare to past premieres?
We have seen the final season premiere of Game of Thrones. How did last night’s episode compare to other season premieres?
Game of Thrones has a record of having pretty incredible season premieres. Remember when Jon Snow opened his eyes again at the beginning of season 6? Or think way back to the first ever premiere, and how well Game of Thrones captured our attention with that first White Walker scene?
Filled with long overdue reunions and revelations about character backgrounds, the season 8 premiere of Game of Thrones set up several new relationships while also coming full circle on others.
(L to R) Isaac Hempstead Wright as Bran Stark and Kit Harington as Jon Snow – Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO
The season 8 premiere split us between two locations — Winterfell and King’s Landing. Cersei is preparing to protect all she has with the Golden Company (sorry, no elephants) and at Winterfell, Daenerys has come to the North with her dragons.
Jon discovered his parentage, the North struggled with who to support, and siblings were reunited at long last. Oh, did we mention that Bran and Jaime shared a look that will go down in Game of Thrones history? So, how does that pair up with premieres we’ve seen between seasons 1 through 7?
The only season that may have had a better premiere may just be the first season’s premiere, “Winter Is Coming.” Sunday’s season 8 premiere, in many ways, parallels that episode. In season 1, the premiere began with Bran trying to get a good look at King Robert Baratheon as he headed to Winterfell, and ended with Jaime throwing Bran out of the window. This premiere began with all of Winterfell watching as Daenerys and Jon Snow arrived together, fire and ice united, and ended with Jaime and Bran spotting each other.
Looking at it from a ratings perspective, the season 8 premiere is far from the highest rated.
“Winterfell” is currently at a 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and that places it at a higher rating than both the season 6 and season 7 premieres. (Seasons 1-5 still rank higher.)
One thing not to laugh at is the fact that one billion people tuned in to watch last night’s premiere, which is quite a bit higher than the 10 million who tuned in for season 7.
It’s obvious that last night’s premiere would garner mass attention as it is the last Game of Thrones premiere we’ll ever see (that is until the spinoff airs — but we all know that’ll be much different).
Will this season continue to bring us full circle with more reunions and revelations? We can only hope!
Next. The 8 most empowering Game of Thrones episodes for women. dark
Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
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