After the Thrones
Live aftershow discussing Game of Thrones episodes.
After the Thrones was a live American aftershow that ran on HBO from April 25, 2016, to June 28, 2016. Hosted by Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan, it recapped episodes of the HBO series *Game of Thrones*. Bill Simmons and Eric Weinberger served as executive producers. Greenwald and Ryan had previously hosted a podcast version called *Watch the Thrones* on Simmons’s Grantland website. A similar talk show, *Thronecast*, aired on the British channel Sky Atlantic, also discussing *Game of Thrones* episodes.
The show was available to HBO and HBO Now subscribers, airing on Mondays following each *Game of Thrones* episode. After its cancellation, Greenwald, Ryan, and Simmons created a similar live-streamed video podcast for Twitter called *Talk the Thrones*. Though covering the same subject, it was a separate production.
The series featured Greenwald and Ryan from Bill Simmons’s upcoming sports and pop culture site, The Ringer, discussing the fantasy drama. Following the success of shows like *Talking Dead*, HBO introduced its own format, where the hosts offered a “lively, humorous and sophisticated look” at the previous night’s episode. It aired on HBO Now each Monday after a season six episode. Greenwald and Ryan had previously hosted a similar podcast for Simmons’s defunct site Grantland, titled *Watch the Thrones*. Past *Watch the Thrones* guests Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion also appeared.
The series premiered on April 25, 2016, on HBO Now, HBO Go, HBO On Demand, and HBO. Its purpose was to “recap the latest episode, explaining the who, what, when and where, exploring the complicated politics and history of Thrones, and offering absurd and not-so-absurd theories about future episodes.”
For *Game of Thrones*’ seventh season, the aftershow was renamed *Talk the Thrones* and moved from HBO to Twitter, streaming live weekly after each episode. Simmons stated, “We love Game of Thrones and we love the way Twitter is thinking about content right now, so we jumped at the chance to blow out our Thrones show into an interactive multimedia experience — something that reacts immediately to what just happened, almost like a postgame show in sports. Nobody is equipped to do that better than Twitter.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Aftershow
- Presenter
- Andy Greenwald · Chris Ryan
- Composer
- Ramin Djawadi
- Executive Producer
- Bill Simmons · Eric Weinberger
- Producer
- Chris Ryan · Andy Greenwald
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Runtime
- 30–35 minutes
- Network
- HBO
- Company
- The Ringer / HBO
- Num Seasons
- 1
- Num Episodes
- 10
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The series featured hosts Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan from the sports and pop culture website The Ringer, created by Bill Simmons. Following the success of similar shows such as Talking Dead, HBO introduced its own version of the format, with the hosts providing a lively, humorous and sophisticated look at the previous night's episode. The show aired on HBO Now, HBO Go, HBO On Demand and HBO on the Monday following each episode of Game of Thrones's sixth season.
Greenwald and Ryan had previously hosted a podcast version of the show titled Watch the Thrones on Simmons' Grantland website. Former Watch the Thrones guests Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion also appeared on After the Thrones. The stated purpose of the show was to recap the latest episode, explaining the who, what, when and where, exploring the complicated politics and history of Thrones, and offering absurd and not-so-absurd theories about future episodes.
After the show's cancellation, Greenwald and Ryan, along with Simmons, created a similar live stream video podcast for distribution on Twitter called Talk the Thrones. Although covering the same subject matter, it was a different production. For the seventh season of Game of Thrones, the aftershow changed its name to Talk the Thrones and moved from HBO to Twitter, where it streamed live weekly.
Reader's Guide
After the Thrones represented HBO's attempt to create a network-sanctioned discussion format for its flagship series, following the model of Talking Dead. The show's significance lies in its bridging of traditional television and digital media: it was made available to HBO and HBO Now subscribers, and its hosts came from the online sports and pop culture website The Ringer. The program's legacy includes its evolution into Talk the Thrones, which moved to Twitter and became an interactive multimedia experience described by Bill Simmons as a postgame show in sports. The show also continued the podcast tradition established by Watch the Thrones on Grantland, demonstrating how aftershows could migrate across platforms. Though short-lived, airing only during the sixth season of Game of Thrones, After the Thrones helped establish a template for live, personality-driven episode recaps that could adapt to changing distribution methods.
Did You Know?
- After the Thrones premiered on April 25, 2016, and ended on June 28, 2016.
- The show was executive produced by Bill Simmons and Eric Weinberger.
- A similar talk show called Thronecast aired on British channel Sky Atlantic.
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