‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Premiere Leads Max to Best Day Ever…Because for Season 1, It Was Still HBO Max

The “House of the Dragon” Season 2 premiere brought Max its most-watched day in history, Warner Bros. Discovery said on Tuesday. This, despite the Season 2 premiere being down 22 percent from the series premiere in 2022. How does that work?

Simple, actually: the “House of the Dragon” Season 1 premiere was on HBO Max. This one was on Max. WBD must know how much we all appreciate a good technicality.

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The “House of the Dragon” series premiere on August 21, 2022 on HBO Max landed 10 million cross-platform (so, linear HBO and HBO Max) viewers. Sunday’s Season 2 premiere received 7.8 million viewers across Max and linear HBO. Each episode from the first season ultimately reached about 29 million viewers, so we’ve got a long way to go here.

HBO Max and Discovery+ combined a little over a year ago to form Max. Discovery+ is still available as a standalone option — albeit not a very popular one.

Max is a different and distinct platform from HBO Max, which was known for being buggy. Dropping the “HBO” was an attempt to highlight that the streaming service consists of the Warner Bros. Discovery brands beyond just prestige-TV outlet HBO. There is the aforementioned Discovery programming (including Food Network and HGTV), as well as Turner content and Warner Bros. films.

WBD recently upped the price of Max by another dollar per month, just in time for the Father’s Day 2024 start to “House of the Dragon” Season 2. The holiday, by the way, may have also limited some Sunday streaming of the “Game of Thrones” prequel series.

Also on Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that production has commenced in Belfast, Ireland on another “Game of Thrones” prequel series, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.” That one is set 100 years before the events of “Game of Thrones.” (OK, so that means “House of the Dragon” is its prequel as well.)

A “Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is an adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s novella “The Hedge Knight.”

The middle series, let’s call it, follows two unlikely heroes in Westeros… a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), and his diminutive squire, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne, and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” also stars Finn Bennett (as Aerion Targaryen), Bertie Carvel (Baelor Targaryen), Tanzyn Crawford (Tanselle), Daniel Ings (Ser Lyonel Baratheon), and Sam Spruell (Maekar Targaryen.)

Owen Harris and Sarah Adina Smith will each director three of the six episodes. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is written by George R.R. Martin and Ira Parker. It is executive produced by Ryan Condal, Vince Gerardis, Owen Harris, and Sarah Bradshaw.

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