July 29, 2011

‘Game of Thrones’: HBO chief loves show but ‘not a fan’ of genre

Posted in: TV

A scene from "Game of Thrones." (Helen Sloan/HBO)

Well, give HBO programming chief Michael Lombardo points for candor. He has a surging show on his hands with “Game of Thrones” but zero interest in checking out the source material, the novels of George R.R. Martin.

“I’m still not a fan of the genre, but I love this show,” Lombardo said at the TV media tour in Beverly Hills on Thursday afternoon, according to Scott Collins writing over at Show Tracker.

Collins also writes of “Thrones”:

After a modest start in the ratings, the series is showing signs of momentum. That’s somewhat ironic for HBO, which has shied away from fantasy series in the past as executives there are still getting used to the fanboy genre. “I think the show is a great surprise to a lot of people, who thought it was going to be about the fantasy,” [HBO co-president Richard] Plepler said. “They saw the great storytelling involved. They stayed with it; the numbers bear that out.”

What’s unclear is how closely the series will track the books. Martin just published the fifth novel in his “A Song of Ice and Fire” cycle and another two are planned. But for the time being, HBO is ordering only 10 episodes at a time. “What’s exciting is there is so much storytelling,” Lombardo said.

Show Tracker has plenty more on TCA 2011, including news about “True Blood” and an update on ”Doctor Who.”

– Geoff Boucher

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