The Question, Sunday 3/31/13: Is Another Winter Coming for the Broadcast Nets?

In recent months, Sunday nights have been a great source of embarrassment for broadcast networks; their offerings regularly lost to History's miniseries The Bible and got totally crushed by AMC's The Walking Dead. With both of those ending tonight, one might think some of this will finally let up. The problem? Another program premieres tonight that could take over the beat-the-broadcasters mantle. HBO's Game of Thrones was not that far from the required mid-2's level last year, and it could continue to benefit from binge viewing. Is another winter coming for the broadcast nets? That's The Question for Sunday, March 31, 2013.

Game of Thrones Last Season

2.0 (premiere, 4/1/12, +120% year-2-year) 1.92 (average, +71% year-to-year) 2.2 (finale, 6/3/12, +58% year-2-year)

Normally I would go even a little higher, because the "streaming effect" is a pretty clear thing that has boosted many a serialized cable program year-after-year, and young-skewing Game of Thrones certainly appeared to benefit from it last year. Plus, it ended last season on a series high, which usually bodes well for the next season.

But the presence of The Walking Dead's finale in the same hour creates a major logjam that never happened last season because TWD had ended by now. (And for whatever it's worth, The Bible is in this hour too!) I'm sure a sizable audience will watch both Walking Dead and GoT within the Live+SD window, but all this competition can't possibly help. So I'll say it goes only two or three ticks above the previous series high.

Over/Under: 2.45.

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