Game of Thrones Ratings Surging

Season 3 of HBO's Game of Thrones is apparently going gangbusters as my recaps/reviews of the first five episodes ("Valar Doheris," "Dark Wings, Dark Words," "Walk of Punishment," "And Now His Watch Is Ended," "Kissed By Fire") indicate. Now comes word that lots more people are also watching the hit show, which has already been renewed for a fourth season. In fact, game of Thrones may soon outshadow HBO's biggest hit True Blood, which at this point is starting to look (more than) a little silly and long in the tooth.

The Hollywood Reporter reports:

Sunday's episode raked in 5.35 million viewers, up 9 percent from the prior week's record 4.9 million viewers. Across all plays for the night, the series brought in 6.7 million viewers.

The growth puts Game of Thrones in a very good position to move into True Blood's previously unchallenged status as HBO's top performer. Sunday's episode topped all original episodes of True Blood's 2012 season, including its 5.2-million-strong opener.

In gross viewership, Game of Thrones is also on track to grow by at least 15 percent this season. Its current cumulative average -- including originals, repeat broadcasts, DVR, HBO Go and On Demand -- puts it at 13.4 million viewers. That's up from last season's 11.6 million average.

hat/tip to Winter Is Coming

Is True Blood Season 5 Gonna Get Better?

I've been actually had a somewhat ambivalent reaction to the first half of Season 5. It's been good, but I fear it has not been up to the show's usual intense (and high quality) standards. That could be because there's been reduced amount of gay content compared to previous seasons, I'm not sure.The only new male eye candy is Chris Meloni, and he has been overdressed most of the time. There is no one who is as pretty as Season 3's Mehcad Brooks playing Eggs Benedict or Season 4's Kevin Alejandro as Lafayett'es boyfriend Jesus Velazquez. Seeing more of Joe Manganiello in Season 5 is a good thing, it must be noted.

If you haven't seen this season yet, the biggest and most interesting developments have involved Tara, who is unfortunately played by one of the least convincing actresses on the show. The other main development has been the forced alignment of Bill and Eric to work together under pain of "the true death."However, the second half of the season seems to be pretty exciting.Creator and Executive Producer of the first 5 seasons Alan Ball is ending his day-to-day connection with the show after this season concludes.

Apparently at the recently concluded Comic-Con in San Diego a trailer for Season 5's second half was released. You can see it at the top of this post.

 hat/tip to Wonder Man

WATCH: Trailer for True Blood Season 5