Someone at DirecTV Now jumped the gun when it came to releasing Game of Thrones content ahead of the season 8 premiere on Sunday, April 14. Approximately four hours before the final season dropped on HBO, DirecTV Now users received an alert that Episode 1 was available on demand.
Along with the season 8 premiere, Episode 2 was also leaked.
Once aware of the episode leak, AT&T — which owns DirecTV Now — quickly moved to pull it down.
“Apparently our system was as excited as we are for Game of Thrones tonight and gave a few DIRECTV Now customers early access to the episode by mistake,” a spokesperson for AT&T said in a statement, via TheWrap. “When we became aware of the error, we immediately fixed it and we look forward to tuning in this evening.”
Despite AT&T moving quickly to remove the episode, people were able to watch it in full with some even sharing screencaps on social media. Here are some of the reactions.
Funny story. I have DIRECTVNOW and they posted the first episode of season 8 of #GOT on their on-demand section and @sarachavez09 and I were like
. It really was the real episode too. It has since been taken down, but that was a major screw up by DTN. pic.twitter.com/mMsVGzudrD
— Michael A. Chavez (@chavezm77) April 14, 2019
. It really was the real episode too. It has since been taken down, but that was a major screw up by DTN. Game of Thrones season 8 premiered on Sunday, April 14, 2019, at 9:00 p.m. ET. You can watch every episode on HBO, HBO Go, and HBO Now. After waiting nearly two years for the final season of the most popular show on television, fans now have a taste of what to expect in the final episodes including the epic, episode-long battle that is expected to be the “longest consecutive action sequence in cinema history,” according to Entertainment Weekly.
And if we are to believe an early review from John Thompson of GQ, the season premiere may be the best the series has ever offered and one of the most humorous Game of Thrones episodes to air.