Game of Thrones (season 3)
"Game of Thrones" rapidly became a critical and commercial success after it started airing in April 2011. A few days after ratings for the second season's premiere, "The North Remembers", hit a series high of 8.3 million viewers, HBO announced the show's renewal for a third season. Prior to that announcement, there had been rumors and reports that showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss planned to shoot seasons three and four simultaneously. Benioff said that this would be very efficient, but impossible to write.
Game of Thrones
The series began development in January 2007. HBO acquired the TV rights to the novels, with Benioff and Weiss as its executive producers, and Martin as a co-executive producer. The intention was for each novel to yield a season's worth of episodes. Initially, Martin would write one episode per season while Benioff and Weiss would write the rest of the episodes. Jane Espenson and Bryan Cogman were later added to write one episode apiece the first season.