This week’s entertainment buzz

Game of Thrones v. Walking Dead

Peter Dinklage in “Game of Thrones”

The season 3 premiere of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” went up against the season 3 finale of AMC’s “Walking Dead” last night and both series emerged winners. “Game of Thrones” bested its own prior ratings high with this premiere. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Last season, Game of Thrones had an average gross audience — including HBO Go, DVR and on-demand viewership — of 11.6 million.” But thanks to word of mouth and increased promotion the GOT fan base may very well be expanding.

Meanwhile, “The Walking Dead,” which has proved itself to be a massive TV hit all season long, regularly beating broadcast network shows, did not disappoint in terms of viewership. The show is wildly popular among the sprawling segment of the population that advertisers want— the 18 to 49-year-olds. And AMC has found a way to integrate products into the apocalyptic world. Hyundai being one of them. In an interview with Variety’s senior TV editor Brian Steinberg, Mashable learned that advertisers are getting savvy about how to reach the DVR fast-forwarding viewer– they’re “starting to incorporate elements of the show into their ads during the show. The hope is that when a viewer fast-forwards through the ad break on a DVR, he or she will stop to watch the zombie-focused ad.”

Summer is Here

Though it’s only April 1st, this past weekend marked the unofficial launch of the Summer Blockbuster season. “G.I. Joe Retaliation,” the sequel to” G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra,” opened with a worldwide gross of over $130 million according to

boxofficemojo.com. The action movie stars a trio of actors that drew audiences– Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum — and is thus far the biggest international hit of 2013 according to

Hollywood.com. It’s a big success story for Paramount since the studio took a chance on postponing its original 2012 planned release date to do a 3-D conversion and– perhaps more importantly– to resurrect the Channing Tatum character. The hunky actor became a movie star last year thanks to “The Vow,” “Magic Mike” and “21 Jump Street.” The studio expanded and re-shot to make him more of a presence in the film and, whatever the cost of that, it paid off.

Don’t Be Fooled

Beware as you read the Internet today. It is full of April 1st pranks. For instance, Ken Levine, veteran TV writer/producer of shows like “Cheers” says he’s taking over the reins of “Girls” and turning it into a multi-camera sit com filmed in front of a live audience.