HBO
Everyone’s going to be talking about the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere on HBO on Sunday, April 14, so you’ll definitely want to watch the episode live if at all possible. But what time is it airing on the west coast? If you just go to HBO’s website, it’s not super easy to tell. West Coast folks tend to be behind everyone else, but depending on how you access the show, that may not be true tonight.
The final season of Game of Thrones will air on TV at 9 p.m. Pacific on HBO West for people on the West coast. But it will be available starting at 6 p.m. Pacific for West coast viewers who watch via streaming on HBO NOW or HBO GO. This is according to HBO’s online schedule.
This means that if you live in the West Coast region, you’ll be seeing the premiere a bit later than your counterparts who get the “eastern broadcast” feed versus the “western broadcast” feed if you’re watching on TV. If you tune into HBO on TV at 6 p.m. Pacific when everyone else is watching, you’ll see either the end of Crazy Rich Asians or the beginning of Season 7 Episode 6 of Game of Thrones.
But if you watch it via streaming, you’ll get to watch right at the same time as your eastern counterparts, according to HBO’s online schedule. The online schedule lists HBO GO and HBO NOW streaming as being simultaneous with the Eastern coast release, while HBO West’s TV channel release is later.
So if you’re watching it on HBO NOW or HBO GO, the episode will be available everywhere when it airs at 9 p.m. Eastern time. This means that if you’re on the West Coast and watching the Season 8 premiere via HBO NOW or GO, you can watch at 6 p.m. Pacific, the same time as everyone else. Fans have put together a countdown timer here.
Meanwhile, On Demand is even later and won’t be released until April 15.
To find out what channel Game of Thrones is on for you in the U.S., click here to go to TV Guide’s listings. Then change the “Provider” (right under TV Listings) to your local provider. You’ll be able to scroll down to see what channel HBO is on in your region.
The Season 8 premiere will be 54 minutes long (sorry to everyone who thought it would be 90 minutes.) The longer episodes won’t start until May 5, when they are 1 hour 18, 1 hour 20, and 1 hour 20 consecutively.
For details about the premiere time and channel all across the world and the Season 8 schedule, see Heavy’s story here.