NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

‘Game of Thrones’ sets viewership record for HBO

NEW YORK

HBO’s “Game of Thrones” lived up to the hype. This past weekend’s season premiere stands as the most-watched one-day event in the history of the cable network that began in 1978.

The Nielsen company said 17.4 million people watched the Sunday opener to the show’s final season, either live on the network at 9 p.m., streamed, through HBO’s on-demand service or during two reruns that aired later that night. Nielsen can’t account for people who watched more than once.

HBO’s previous high-water mark was last season’s finale of “Game of Thrones,” making it likely that this new HBO record will be eclipsed when the series ends May 19.

Nielsen said that 11.8 million people watched the season premiere traditionally, meaning when it first aired on the network at 9 p.m.

The numbers are likely to keep going up; HBO estimates that 32.8 million people watched each episode of the show last season. That includes people who watched weeks after it first aired and repeat viewers.

For the week of April 8-14, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: Virginia vs. Texas Tech, CBS, 19.72 million; “NCIS,” CBS, 11.82 million; “Game of Thrones,” HBO, 11.76 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 8.72 million; “The Code,” CBS, 8.14 million; “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 8.09 million; “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 7.62 million; “Survivor,” CBS, 7.6 million; “NCAA Basketball Pre-Game Show,” CBS, 7.47 million; “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 7.32 million.

Cosby’s insurer settles LA accuser’s suit before deposition

PHILADELPHIA

Bill Cosby’s insurance company has settled another lawsuit filed by a female accuser a week before the imprisoned comedian was set to give a deposition in the case, prompting Cosby to call the insurer “complicit” in a scheme to destroy him.

Former model Chloe Goins had accused Cosby of drugging and molesting her at a party at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 2008, when she was about 18.

Cosby, in a statement Tuesday, accused American International Group Inc. of “egregious behavior” in settling what he called a “frivolous” suit, and said he could prove he was in New York at the time. Goins’ lawsuit was filed in state court in Los Angeles.

Former astronaut Owen Garriott dies

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

Former astronaut Owen Garriott, who flew on America’s first space station, Skylab, and whose son followed him into orbit, has died at age 88.

He died Monday at his home in Huntsville, Ala., according to NASA.

“Dad had a great 88 orbits around the sun!” tweeted son Richard, a computer game developer who paid the Russians $30 million for a ride to the International Space Station in 2008.

Owen Garriott served on the second Skylab crew in 1973, spending close to 60 days in space, a record at the time. He also was part of the ninth space shuttle mission, flying aboard Columbia in 1983 and operating a ham radio for the first time from orbit.

Associated Press