‘Game of Thrones’ season 5 clobbers in the ratings; ‘Halt and Catch Fire’ season 2 up from finale

Cable ratings can sometimes be all across the board, given that you have so many different factors to consider from competition to DVR playback to promotion and sometimes even the lead-in. Often, there is not much in the way of consistency at all.

Take, for example, the fact that “Game of Thrones” suddenly surged to over 7 million viewers for its big episode “Hardhome” on Sunday night, which is extremely impressive even for a network in HBO who has a lot invested in this show. Personally, we don’t really feel like demo ratings matter that much for the network, given that all they really care about are their total number of subscribers. Remember here that even this number is somewhat deceptive given that you also have to consider playback from recordings, streams on HBO GO and HBO NOW, and some other On-Demand mediums that are not represented here.

Meanwhile, the second-season premiere of “Halt and Catch Fire” did not even measure a tenth of that success. The Lee Pace series drew almost 660,000 viewers for its first episode back and also about a 0.2 rating in the demo; while these numbers are down from the series premiere last year, they do mark improvement from the finale. Another factor to consider this time is that the show really did not have any lead-in for the premiere this year, and it has consistently performed well in some other measures such as live+3. Hopefully, the strong critical reception will help to carry the day here.

Remember that “Game of Thrones” has already been renewed for another season; meanwhile, “Halt and Catch Fire” may be on the bubble straight up to the finale.

Head over here if you do want to take a deeper look inside this past episode of “Game of Thrones.” Also, sign up today if you want some further TV updates sent over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: HBO.)