HBO's Programming President Defends Showrunners for 'Game of Thrones' Finale
“I think the guys did a great job.”
Epic fantasy series Game of Thrones came to an end last Sunday, and it’s been quite evident that fans of the show have mixed opinions regarding the way HBO ended things. Responding to the internet’s reaction, HBO’s president of programming Casey Bloys said in a recent interview that he expected fans to be divided: “I think to a certain extent it was expected that for a show this big, there’s no way you’re going to please everybody,” he said. “It’s roughly split with some people loving it and some people disliking it. That’s about what you’d expect. I think the guys landed a massive plane and did a great job doing it. But you’re never going to make everybody happy, nor should that be the goal.”
Despite a battering of criticisms toward showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — including a petition for HBO to remake season eight with less “incompetent” writers — Bloys defended and even praised the two: “I think the guys did a great job. It’s always sad when a show departs, but that’s part of the TV life cycle, and life moves on. But obviously we’re really proud of the show.” The programming lead also reassured fans that Benioff and Weiss had worked very hard on planning out this ending, and that doing six episodes had always been their intention: “The guys have had a very, very specific plan in their head for a long time. This was not something that was kind of slapdash, where at the end of last season we said, ‘Eh, we only feel like doing six.’ They were very, very deliberate. This was well thought out.”
For more Game of Thrones news, HBO may be losing a significant portion of its subscribers now that the series has ended.
