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Q: How are the overall ratings and On Demand numbers? Do they surprise you? Does HBO send you ratings every
week? Do you look forward to seeing them? [Jim King]A: I am told that we are up between 15 and 20 percent over the previous season. I looked closely enough at the first few episodes to see that the on-demand share was growing and had exceeded a half million viewing and was climbing, so that it's clear that more people are discovering the show on platforms other than the Sunday night premiere. And the DVDs, I am told by that HBO division, have "made their sales goals." Whatever that means.
Basically, it's time for me to admit the truth. I monitor this stuff for exactly as long as I need to worry about it in regard to getting to finish the show on proper terms. Once HBO came through with the season five renewal, I stopped studying it in any sort of Talmudic fashion. There is someone at HBO who can explain just where we are -- and generally I think it is a better place than previous years -- but I have not had a conversation with that person. Possibly, this is because Carolyn Strauss herself tells me not to concern myself with the numbers. I swear, she's been saying that for the last four years. Maybe it's time for me to believe her. The show has done what HBO needed it to in terms of critical acclaim and cultural buzz and so, she says, rest easy. So I will.
Q: Is HBO scheduled to release Season 4 DVDs before Season 5 airs? Can we get some deleted scenes, humorous outtakes, or maybe some of the production gag reel this time? [mane33]
A: I would like to put our gag reels, previously shown only at the wrap parties, on the final, season five DVD. I don't want to do that kind of thing before the show finishes its story arcs. It feels like it reveals too much of the artifice and in some sense, I think, ruins the sense of verisimilitude that many viewers value. We don't have that many deleted scenes, but perhaps, again, what we have that is worthwhile can find a home on the last DVD set.
I think it is paramount that HBO gets the season four DVDs out before season five. We were already approached about doing the commentaries for season four, but I delayed doing so for a time, fearing that the DVD release would be so much prior to the season five premiere that it wouldn't help to build interest in the coming season. Optimally, the DVDs should come not a year before the ensuing season, but several months and I was concerned on that point. Now, however, with the bootleg DVDs being sold far and wide, I've changed my tune. The quicker, the better, for HBO and for the show itself.
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