The House of the Dragon Season 1 finale airs tonight on HBO (and HBO Max), and fans are surely in for a thrilling evening (unless you’re someone who watched the leak already). While it’s expected that Season 1, Episode 9, “The Black Queen,” will deliver, fans looking to revel in the season capper’s events and theorize on what’s to come in Season 2 will have one less aftershow to tune in to.
Just Game of Thrones before it, HotD has spawned numerous panel and discussion series featuring fans diving into each episode, such as Nerdist’s All Kings Considered and HBO’s own The Official Game of Thrones Podcast: House of the Dragon. One of the most promising new aftershows joining the bunch has been G4TV’s Keeping up With the Targaryens. The live show, which streamed via Twitch and YouTube, saw host Kassem G and rotating G4 favorites BComp, Megan Lutz and Stephen Czerwinski discuss each episode the Monday after each HotD episode aired. Unfortunately, the series has been prematurely canceled.
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Despite being envisioned to at least cover all 10 episodes of the HBO drama, Keeping up With the Targaryens wrapped after covering Season 1, Episode 8, “The Lord of the Tides.” This abrupt ending to the talk show was due to G4, as a whole, ceasing operation. Comcast unceremoniously (and unprofessionally) laid off the entire G4 workforce on Oct. 16 via a memo first leaked to Puck and Deadline. Comcast immediately stopped production of any more episodes of all G4 programming, including Xplay, Name Your Price, Arena, Attack of the Show!, Vibe Check and Hey, Donna!
Keeping up With the Targaryens was one of several G4 shows launched over the summer to feature a streamlined video-podcasting setup. The episodes were livestreamed via a setup in the G4 office space — not one of the network’s massive and expensive TV studios. As with the daily news show The Feedback and Andor aftershow Andor Candor, KUWTT’s lower budget could not help it escape the wrath of corporate executives’ mismanagement.
It’s unclear if Kassem G will independently produce a successor to KUWTT. He and fellow G4 alums Kevin Pereira and Fiona Nova have launched a Patreon project tied to their Discord community The Cream Team, with audio projects planned. The YouTube legend, known for hosting interview series like California On and co-founding Maker Studios, is also revving up his own Twitch channel, in addition to maintaining his co-host status on the podcast Pajama Pants. He and BComp have also alluded to producing a successor to another G4 talk show, Fresh Ink, but nothing concrete has been announced as of press time.