Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: When did the first season of the Game of Thrones TV series air?
The first season of the fantasy drama television series Game of Thrones premiered on HBO on April 17, 2011 in the U.S., and concluded on June 19, 2011. It consists of ten episodes, each of approximately 55 minutes. The series is based on A Game of Thrones, the first novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, adapted for television by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. HBO had ordered a television pilot in November 2008; filming began the following year. However, it was deemed unsatisfactory and later reshot with some roles being recast. In March 2010, HBO ordered the first season, which began filming in July 2010, primarily in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with additional filming in Malta.
Season 4 obtained the strongest viewer numbers of all seasons aired up until that point, with a series high of 7.20 million viewers of the first airing of the seventh episode. With its fourth season, "Game of Thrones" has become the most-watched HBO series in history (surpassing the fourth season of "The Sopranos" which had a gross audience of 18.2 million viewers), averaging 18.4 million viewers across multiple platforms, including live viewing, encores, DVR views, HBO GO and On Demand views.
The first season of the series, which consists of 52 episodes, aired on Showcase in 2001. Season 2 consisted of 26 episodes, but was not produced and aired until 2004, due to the series producers' difficulty in raising money for a second season. The third season also consisted of 26 episodes. Season 3 first aired on the American premium cable channel Here! TV starting in April 2008; the third season did not premiere on the original broadcaster Showcase channel until September 1, 2009.
All season 3 episodes aired on Here! TV in the United States, premiering in April 2008, before they aired on Showcase in Canada, where season 3 premiered in September 2009.
The Azure Window features in a number of films, including "Clash of the Titans" (1981) and "The Count of Monte Cristo" (2002). It can also be seen in the television miniseries "The Odyssey" (1997). It was used as a filming location for the Dothraki wedding scene in the first season of HBO's TV series "Game of Thrones". The filming of "Game of Thrones" resulted in controversy when a protected ecosystem was damaged by a subcontractor. Cliff diver David Colturi is featured in a 2017 Hugo Boss advert video at the Azure Window and the Wied il-Mielaħ Window.
Subscription channel Living began showing the series in the United Kingdom in October 2005, averaging 50,000 viewers per episode for its first season. The channel began airing the second season on June 8, 2006, airing one episode per week rather than showing one every night as they did in the first season. Despite low ratings in the second season, Living decided to air the series' third season. It was syndicated through the Living TV Group platform, airing on the now defunct channel Trouble just before its closure. Free-to-air channel E4 began broadcasting the series from July 16, 2009.
The first season averaged 2.5 million viewers for its first Sunday-night screenings and a gross audience (including repeats and on-demand viewings) of 9.3 million viewers per episode. For its second season, the series had an average gross audience of 11.6 million viewers. The third season was seen by 14.2 million viewers, making "Game of Thrones" the second-most-viewed HBO series (after "The Sopranos"). For the fourth season, HBO said that its average gross audience of 18.4 million viewers (later adjusted to 18.6 million) had passed "The Sopranos" for the record. By the sixth season the average per-episode gross viewing figure had increased to over 25 million, with nearly 40 percent of viewers watching on HBO digital platforms. In 2016, a "New York Times" study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that "Game of Thrones" was "much more popular in cities than in the countryside, probably the only show involving zombies that is". By season seven, average viewer numbers had increased to over 30 million per episode across all platforms.
When it debuted in 2002 as one of the first series to air on YES, "Yankees Classics" consisted entirely of regular season games from the team's local broadcasts, via WPIX, MSG Network, and WNYW. In 2003, YES acquired rights to rebroadcast playoff games that aired nationally on Fox. In 2007, YES and Major League Baseball acquired rights to games that aired on ABC as part of MLB's then-TV deal with ESPN, including Bobby Murcer's five runs batted in during the game the night of Thurman Munson's funeral. Other games included in this transaction are Game 5 of the 1976 ALCS and Game 6 of the 1977 World Series. In 2008, YES and MLB gained the rights to NBC's telecasts of 1978 and 1999 World Series games.
Since 1998, he has played mostly supporting roles in numerous German and international TV and film productions. His first leading role was that of Stephan in the 2000 gay milieu study "No One Sleeps". In August 2011, he was cast as the convict and assassin Jaqen H'ghar in the second season of the HBO fantasy TV series "Game of Thrones", and has reprised his role in the show's fifth and sixth seasons, starting in 2015. For his performance in "Game of Thrones" he was nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series by the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2016. Since 2013, he has been starring in the crime series "Crossing Lines" as Kommissar Sebastian Berger, a German police officer.
In its first four seasons of Sunday night coverage, NBC took one week off in late October or early November, so as not to conflict with Fox's coverage of baseball's World Series. In 2006 NBC did not air a game on October 22, which was the scheduled date for Game 2 of the World Series, but a potential conflict still existed on October 29 had the series gone seven games (the conflict never arose, however, as the 2006 World Series ended in five games). With the change in World Series scheduling beginning in 2007, NBC did not air an NFL game in order to avoid a conflict with World Series Game 4, which is the first chance a team would have to clinch the series. In 2007, there was no game on October 28; in 2008, there was no game on October 26; and, in 2009, there was no game on November 1. Although no games aired on these nights, "Football Night in America" still aired as scheduled at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
In the series' third season, Throne was replaced by Edward Binns as Mundy's SIA boss, Wallie Powers. As Throne explained: "They had this idea of shooting the whole season in Italy, but they wanted me to stay behind and give Wagner’s character...orders over the phone. I told them if I didn’t go I’d quit, and I did. The show didn’t last another half a season." Throne's version of events was incorrect, as the third season was not shortened. In the end, portions of season three were filmed in Europe and Binns, Throne's replacement, filmed some scenes there.
Israeli actress Ania Bukstein was also introduced in the series as the High Priestess Kinvara, who is brought to Meereen to spread propaganda about Daenerys Targaryen's supposed success at eliminating the problem with the Sons of the Harpy. In an interview with Bukstein she said, "Yes, it's very exciting, but let's calm down. It's not like I'm the new Khaleesi. "Game of Thrones" came after a ton of hard work. I filmed a lot of audition tapes in front of a white wall at home. I've paid my dues for years." Bukstein also stated that she had previously sent in an audition tape to the series when it was first casting its first season, saying, "A few years ago, when they had only begun to cast the first season of "Game of Thrones", I sent an audition tape. I didn't really know for which role, and I mainly didn't know—and neither did the world—what a hit the series was about to become. But I remember that even then, the scenes that I got excited me, and I completely went with the style."
"Thronecast" was devised by Koink Productions Ltd for Sky Digital Entertainment. The series began airing online in April 2011 as a series of 10-minute podcasts presented by Geoff Lloyd to correspond with the first series of "Game of Thrones". Annabel Port joined Geoff for the second series, which corresponded with the broadcast of the second series of "Game of Thrones". For the third series, "Thronecast" became a 15-minute on-air show that was broadcast on Sky Atlantic following each episode of the third series of "Game of Thrones", and featured new guest presenter Grace Dent. The fourth series was presented by Jamie East and Rachel Parris, and was 30 minutes long. The fifth series was presented by Sue Perkins and Jamie East and was 30 minutes long, except for the series finale which was an extended hour long special.
The fourth season of "Game of Thrones" was the most-pirated TV series in 2014.
The season was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 15, 2016, in region 1 and March 14, 2016, in region 2.
On April 11, prior to the airing of the season's first episode, screener copies of the first four episodes were leaked to several file sharing sites. According to TorrentFreak, 18 million different IP addresses downloaded the leaked episodes, totaling 32 million downloads during the first week. The fifth season of "Game of Thrones" was the most-pirated TV series in 2015.
Prior to creating "Reigns: Game of Thrones", François Alliot, the founder of London-based video game developer Nerial, had been a fan of "Game of Thrones" ever since he read the original books by George R. R. Martin, and had also enjoyed the eponymous TV series. When he pitched the original "Reigns" to publisher Devolver Digital, Alliot described the game as "Tinder meets "Game of Thrones""; Devolver later passed this idea on to HBO, the company behind the "Game of Thrones" TV series, to agree on a licensing deal.
"Fire and Blood" is the tenth and final episode of the first season of the HBO medieval fantasy television series "Game of Thrones". First aired on June 19, 2011, it was written by the show's creators and executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Alan Taylor.
In October 2018, Diageo teamed with the HBO to produce the White Walker by Johnnie Walker whisky, inspired by the army of the undead in the hugely popular TV series "Game of Thrones", ahead of the series' eighth and final season that was to be aired in April 2019. Diageo earlier launched a collection of "Game of Thrones"-inspired single malt scotches in November 2018.
In the fall of 1976, Barry sold reruns of "The Joker's Wild's" final CBS season to several stations, including New York's WOR-TV and Los Angeles' KTLA. These reruns rated highly enough that Barry and Enright chose to bring the game back into production for first-run syndication beginning in 1977, with Barry again the host. The show was distributed by Dick Colbert Television Sales and produced at the Chris Craft Studios of KCOP-TV in Hollywood. The series was seen in Los Angeles on KHJ-TV, despite being produced at KCOP, and despite the test run of the final CBS season having aired on KTLA the season before. "Joker" eventually did air on its flagship, KCOP, for two seasons, before moving back to KHJ on March 4, 1984.
Eddard "Ned" Stark is a fictional character in the 1996 fantasy novel A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, and Game of Thrones, HBO's adaptation of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. In the storyline, Ned is the lord of Winterfell, an ancient fortress in the North of the fictional continent of Westeros. Though the character is established as the main character in the novel and the first season of the TV adaptation, Martin's plot twist at the end involving Ned shocked both readers of the book and viewers of the TV series.[1][2]
The season was released on Blu-ray and DVD on November 15, 2016. The set includes extra background, behind-the-scenes material and deleted scenes.
The sixth season of "Game of Thrones" was the most-pirated TV series in 2016.
Green Fingers was an early Australian television series, which aired for two seasons on Melbourne station HSV-7. Much of what is known about the series comes from old TV listings. As the title suggests, it was a gardening series. The first season aired from 22 March 1957 to 3 January 1958, host(s) unknown. The second season aired from 29 August 1958 to 24 July 1959. TV listings in "The Age" list the cast as being John Sunnyman and Danny Webb. During its first season, it was a 5-minute series aired before HSV-7's newscast, but the second season aired as a 15-minute series in daytime. Both seasons aired on Fridays.
"High Sparrow" is the third episode of the fifth season of HBO's fantasy television series "Game of Thrones", and the 43rd overall. The episode was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Mark Mylod, his directorial debut for the series. It aired on April 26, 2015. Prior to airing, this episode along with the other first four episodes of the season were leaked online.
With the revival series on Fox, "Get Smart" became the first television franchise to air new episodes on each of the current four major American television networks, although several TV shows in the 1940s and 1950s aired on NBC, CBS, ABC, and DuMont. The different versions of "Get Smart" did not all feature the original lead cast intact. The first four seasons of the original "Get Smart" series aired on NBC, while the fifth and final season aired on CBS. "Get Smart, Again!" aired on ABC.
"Beyond the Wall" is the sixth and penultimate episode of the seventh season of HBO's fantasy television series "Game of Thrones", and the 66th overall. It was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Alan Taylor. At 70 minutes, it was the series' longest episode until the airing of the season's finale.
When the NFC package moved from CBS to Fox in 1994, WPGH-TV aired the Steelers games that had before aired on KDKA-TV, leaving the senior station without Steelers games for four years. Today, and in general since 1970, the only exceptions to all the above are when the Steelers play at night. Their "Monday Night Football" games have always aired locally on WTAE-TV, first when ABC had the rights, and since 2006, on ESPN. WTAE-TV also aired simulcasts of their games aired as part of "ESPN Sunday Night Football" from 1987 to 2005 (since 2006, WPXI airs Steelers games when they play on Sunday nights). The NFL requires games on cable channels to be simulcast over-the-air in the markets of the participating teams (again with the home team's broadcast subject to blackout). WTAE-TV has simulcast ESPN-aired games because ESPN is 20% owned by WTAE-TV's owners, Hearst Corporation—their ABC stations have right of first refusal for these simulcasts. Games on TNT and NFL Network have aired on various stations in the area.