“Kill the Boy” pulls in lowest ratings this season, still dominates

The cable ratings for this past Sunday’s new episode of Game of Thrones, “Kill the Boy,” are in. As it ever was and ever shall be, the show performed very well. “Kill the Boy” was watched by around 6.56 million people, and scored a 3.5 rating among adults 18-49. That was more than enough to make Game of Thrones the most watched cable show of the night. It best its nearest competition, the NBA playoffs and The Real Housewives of Atlanta, by a decent margin.

At the same time, these are the lowest ratings the show has gotten all year, although they’re pretty consistent with last week. After “The Wars to Come” pulled in the highest numbers the show has ever seen (nearly eight million people watching), things have dropped off and stayed around the mid-six million mark. Usually, things pick up in the back half of the season and the show finishes stronger than it began. We’ll have to see if Season 5 continues this pattern.

Because “Kill the Boy” is the first episode of the season that wasn’t leaked online in advance of the premiere, people were curious to see whether the ratings would tick up as people were forced to watch the show on TV rather than rely on BitTorrent. Well, they didn’t—curiosity satiated. The pirates were still out in force, though, as “Kill the Boy” was downloaded illegally more than any other episode in the series during the 12-hour period after it aired. That’s Game of Thrones for you—even when the show gets its lowest ratings of the season, it’s still breaking records.

• Published on 05/12/2015 at 12:30 PM CDT
• Last updated on 05/12/2015 at 12:30 PM CDT