HBO renews Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley ahead of season premieres

In an unsurprising move, HBO has announced it's renewing Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley and Veep through 2017.

The news comes just a week after Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff said they had plans to not only end the series in a couple of years, but were exploring fewer episodes for the last two seasons. The seventh season would have about seven episodes, while the eight season would have about six.

Michael Lombardo, HBO's president of programming, said that he knew Weiss and Benioff had aired their wishes to have shorter seasons, but the network hadn't made any final decisions as to whether or not that would happen. The current format allows for 10 episodes each season, like most other shows on the network.

This season, which has become one of the most anticipated in the show's history, will premiere Sunday, April 24 at 9 p.m. ET. HBO has made the weekend a free preview event, so even if you don't subscribe to the network, you can watch it live and free of charge.

HBO also announced it would be renewing its Emmy Award-winning satirical comedy, Veep, for a sixth season. The show, which stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the current president, recently underwent showrunner changes. Creator Armando Iannucci decided to leave after the fourth season, and while critics were concerned the fifth wouldn't hold up after the regiment change, last season was regarded as one of the series' best.

HBO's other satirical comedy, Silicon Valley, was also renewed for a fourth season. The show, which stars Thomas Middleditch, T.J. Miller, Kumail Nanjiani and Martin Starr, has become one of the network's most popular. The new season finds the boys of Pied Piper fighting with venture capitalists to retain their majority share in the company they founded.

The third season of Silicon Valley will premiere right after Game of Thrones at 10 p.m. ET, with Veep's fifth season directly following at 10:30 p.m.