For all the fan infighting over whether or not Game of Thrones earned its final bow, there's at least one person who isn't mad at all at the way things turned out: HBO’s president of programming Carey Bloys. In an interview with Variety, the network's very own big bad stuck up for showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, commending them for largely pulling off an incredibly difficult task.
“I think the guys did a great job,” Bloys said. “It’s always sad when a show departs, but that’s part of the TV life cycle, and life moves on. But obviously we’re really proud of the show.”
Bloys is fully aware of the way that the ending — with its abrupt turns and the decision to make a neglected character the ruler of Westeros — has divided fans of the series. However, he thinks that comes with the territory of making a show that so many people care about.
“I think to a certain extent it was expected that for a show this big, there’s no way you’re going to please everybody,” Bloys said. “It’s roughly split with some people loving it and some people disliking it. That’s about what you’d expect. I think the guys landed a massive plane and did a great job doing it. But you’re never going to make everybody happy, nor should that be the goal.”
You can't blame him for his cheery disposition. From Bloys' unique vantage point, the Thrones finale was a resounding success. Over 19 million people tuned in on Sunday, to watch Jon Snow narc on himself for regicide. While that ending might have seemed a little pasted together, Bloys said that the show's arc was carefully considered. In spite of the rushed feeling of the last season, that led even some of the actors to speak out, Bloys said that nothing on the show was thrown together and that the show ended where they planned to end it.
"The guys have had a very, very specific plan in their head for a long time,” he said. “This was not something that was kind of slapdash, where at the end of last season we said, ‘Eh, we only feel like doing six.’ They were very, very deliberate. This was well thought out.”
