HBO has long “owned” Sunday nights in the world of television. The network’s 9PM and 10PM slots are where some of the best, most celebrated, most beloved shows ever have aired. But no one can compete with the NFL when it comes to grabbing viewers. And HBO has no intention of trying when the league puts on its championship game. The network is releasing both A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and Industry early on HBO Max to avoid a Super Bowl showdown.
HBO has announced A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms fourth episode, along with the fifth episode of Industry‘s fourth season, will arrive sooner than usual this week. Both shows typically debut new episodes on Sunday nights. But that would be a bad idea this week. Each would be competing with/getting trounced by the National Football League’s championship game. This weekend. on February 8, the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks face off. The game begins at 6:30PM Eastern. With the extended halftime show, it won’t end until at least 10PM if not 10:30PM. That will overlap with both A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and Industry.
So rather than losing a big part of their respective audiences to the big game, both series will premiere their new episodes globally on HBO Max on Friday, February 6. The new installments of both will go live on the streaming site at 12:01am PT/3:01am ET. They will then still air in their usually Sunday night slots on HBO. (Industry at 9 pm and AKOT7K at 10 pm.)
Even with the early release and the literal Super Bowl, we still expect the ratings for both shows to be good. There’s a reason people say HBO “owns” Sunday nights on television.
Just so long as TV’s true behemoth isn’t also on.