House Of The Dragon Defeated By Another Blockbuster Series
House of the Dragon was riding high off that post-Game of Thrones hype but it’s been dethroned by the Sylvester Stallone-starring Tulsa King. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nielsen numbers indicate that Tulsa King is now cable’s highest-rated series debut this year nabbing 3.7 million viewers (including delayed viewing numbers). You can definitely count this as a big win for Paramount, which led into the new Taylor Sheridan-produced series with an episode of the also wildly successful Taylor Sheridan series Yellowstone.
Although Tulsa King and House of the Dragon are clearly very different shows, they do have a little bit of the same DNA. They both feature characters vying for power, with Stallone’s mafioso attempting to build a criminal kingdom and Paddy Considine’s King Viserys Targaryen trying to maintain a kingdom (while others try to position themselves to take over the throne). That’s pretty much it, but you have to imagine there’s some viewer crossover with the number of people that watched both shows.
House of the Dragon had a lot more riding on it than Tulsa King, since it was not only an established IP but it had to win back some fan goodwill after the abysmal final seasons of Game of Thrones. Fortunately, it seems like Miguel Sapochnik, Ryan Condal, and George R.R. Martin managed to do just that, as the series was a smash hit for HBO while also garnering positive reviews from critics and audiences alike. It seems like HBO’s Game of Thrones franchise is back on track.
House of the Dragon was quickly renewed by HBO, with a second season greenlit less than a week after the pilot episode premiered. The series followed the events of George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, telling the story of the Targaryen war of succession set nearly two centuries before the events of Game of Thrones. The series stars Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Milly Alcock, Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Sonoya Mizuno, Fabien Frankel, Olivia Cooke, Emily Carey, and more.
Unsurprisingly, Tulsa King has also been renewed for a second season after pulling in such impressive numbers. If the second seasons of the shows end up coming out around the same time again next year, perhaps we’ll see another Tulsa King and House of the Dragon faceoff. It remains to be seen if Tulsa King can keep up these high viewer numbers throughout its first season run, but it seems like fans can take solace in the fact that they’ll definitely be seeing more of Stallone as an out-of-place New York mobster in Oklahoma.
There’s no word yet when the next season of Tulsa King is expected to come out, but you can continue to see new episodes of the series on Paramount+ on Sunday nights. As for House of the Dragon, you can now stream the entire first season on HBO Max. There’s also no official release date for the second season of the Game of Thrones prequel, but it’s expected to be sometime in 2024.
