With the internet a less-than-ideal platform for live-streaming mass-audience events, rarely if ever do hugely anticipated programs go down without a hitch, and Sunday was no exception.

Streamers of HBO’s season eight premiere of Game of Thrones experienced issues in regions including the Northeast U.S., as well as Europe and Latin America, according to the website DownDetector.

Frustrated users of HBO Go, the authenticated online channel, and the standalone streaming service HBO Now took to social media Sunday night to report issues ranging from login problems to excessive buffering and system crashes.

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Problems were also reported by users who get HBO through Hulu.

One of the glitches was consumer-friendly: DirecTV Now accidentally made the GOT premiere available in some regions three hours ahead of schedule, according to published reports. 

The season seven finale of Game of Thrones produced a first-night audience of 12.1 million viewers, and the season eight premiere was expected to exceed that total.

Earlier on Sunday, as Tiger Woods was completing his first major pro golf tournament win in 11 years, users of Hulu+ Live TV and DirecTV Now also reportedly faced challenges.

One frustrated user said on Twitter that he was told by Hulu customer service that CBS, which was broadcasting The Masters golf tourney live, cut Hulu and DirecTV Now’s access to local CBS stations so as to re-direct viewership to its website and apps. 

David Benioff and D.B Weiss are near household names today – particularly in homes with well-worn and extensive fantasy novel libraries – but it wasn’t always that way. The two, co-creators and showrunners of HBO’s blockbuster Game of Thrones were just two guys with an idea when they pitched their version of George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire to the premium network nearly a decade ago.

Today, GoT has won more Emmy Awards than any other scripted series and in its seventh season attracted an average of 33 million viewers, making it the most popular show in HBO history. Benioff and Weiss, on location in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as they film the final year of the fantasy saga, took some time out to answer a few questions from Multichannel News senior finance editor Mike Farrell via e-mail about the man who helped make it all happen, MCN's Executive of the Year, HBO chairman and CEO Richard Plepler.

MCN: What is it about HBO that made you want to do your show there? What was your first pitch meeting like?
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss: Well, HBO was the home of our favorite dramas: The Sopranos,Deadwood, The Wire. For most of television’s history it has been considered the bastard younger brother of film, but HBO began to change that perception by attracting top-notch actors, directors and writers, and providing big enough budgets to allow for cinematic production values.

So once we realized the story of Game of Thrones could only be told in the multi-season format of a television program, HBO felt like the best choice by far.

We pitched the show to [former HBO Entertainment president] Carolyn Strauss and [former HBO Entertainment SVP] Gina Balian. We had been warned that Carolyn was a tough pitch and we shouldn’t expect her to laugh at any of our jokes. So when she cracked a smile midway through the meeting we felt like we’d won the golden ticket.

MCN: How supportive is the environment at HBO and is it a company you’d like to continue working for?
Benioff and Weiss: For both of us this has been the best experience of our working lives. Our show started out expensive and has gotten more expensive every year. But while each new season brings some creative haggling, HBO has always provided us with the resources we need to tell the story we want to tell.

Even in the early seasons when the show was more of a niche offering, we were able to communicate with leadership and explain our needs. An example: at the end of Season 2 we shot our first big battle, the Battle of Blackwater Bay. We knew it was going to be expensive, with hundreds of extras, a ship that needed to be built, and a great deal of VFX shots. We didn’t have the money for it so we called the home office and explained why we needed the extra money and how we planned on spending it.

It was a big ask but they listened. They never hung up the phone; they never said, “The budget is the budget.” It took some persuasion, but ultimately they said, “We trust you.”

As to the second part of the question— we’ve said this before but it remains the truth: HBO is the New York Yankees of television. If you have a chance to play in Yankee Stadium, you wear the pinstripes until you can’t play anymore.

MCN: Many entertainment CEOs don’t have relationships with talent. How much interaction do you have with Richard Plepler?
Benioff and Weiss: We talk to Richard a lot, and we see him a lot. One of the reasons he's so good at what he does is that he's in his element with such a broad range of people, including people like us. It's an honest impulse that comes from his genuine and voracious curiosity about the world.

If you're making one of his shows, he wants to know the details. If you're making policy in Washington, he wants to know the details. If you're making his sandwich, he wants to know the details. There's a warmth and ease there that makes you look forward to spending time with him. Conversations with him are energizing, not enervating.

MCN: What about him do you admire?
Benioff and Weiss: Aside from the above? In a business full of smiling windsocks, he is not a windsock. He doesn't focus test his decisions, he doesn't crowdsource his decisions. Richard's decisions come from Richard, and he stands by them.

Our show... It's worked out pretty well so far, but we try to avoid the hindsight fallacy here. In 2010, he ordered a very expensive show set in a genre alien to pay TV, from two guys who had never written or run a show before, and whose first attempts at writing and producing the Game of Thrones pilot had fallen well short of expectations. And knowing all those things, he supported our show, and took a serious, potentially ruinous risk in doing so. Because he believed in it.

It's hard not to admire someone who takes a risk like that. Especially when the risk he took is the reason we're talking to you in the first place.

The aftershow genre is drawing more networks eager to offer fans more exposure to their favorite hit series — and on more platforms, too.

Network executives said aftershows — the best-known of which is AMC’s live post-The Walking Dead panel show Talking Dead — are a relatively easy way to create original content that serves the big audiences for hit shows, especially in the fantasy and sci-fi realms, at a fraction of the cost.

Syfy is the latest network to dive in, launching a weekly Tuesday night podcast to support the second season of time-travel drama series 12 Monkeys, which launches tonight (April 18). The Talking Monkeys podcast, to be made available at Syfy.com and in the iTunes Store, will feature series creator and executive producer Terry Matalas and cast members discuss the show’s most recent episode.

The goal of Talking Monkeys is to reach 12 Monkeys fans online, Matthew Chiavelli, senior vice president of Syfy Digital, said.

“The 12 Monkeys audience has proven to be ravenous consumers of any of the ancillary digital content that Syfy has created since the show’s premiere last year -- so we saw this as an ideal series to launch a podcast,” Chiavelli said. “12 Monkeys, being a multilayered show with deep, rich storytelling, is perfect for this medium that allows for longer-form discussion.”

Talking Monkeys joins several other after-show series debuting in April. AMC tonight (April 18) will air a live Talking Saul aftershow following the season-two finale of drama series Better Call Saul. The network first aired Talking Saul, hosted by Talking Dead’s Chris Hardwick, after the show’s second season premiere on Feb. 15.

Speaking of Talking Dead, AMC on April 10 launched the series for the second-season premiere of zombie series Fear The Walking Dead, a spinoff of the cable’s top rated series The Walking Dead. A week prior, the Talking Dead that followed TWD’s season-six finale averaged 7.9 million viewers (on a Nielsen-plus-3-day basis). While that was a big drop-off from the 14.1 million viewers who watched The Walking Dead, it was a big enough audience to make the series the fifth-most-watched show of the week, Nielsen reported.

Crossing platforms again, HBO tapped Grantland founder Bill Simmons to create an on demand aftershow for Game of Thrones. After the Thrones will appear on HBO Now, HBO Go and HBO On Demand the Monday after each new Sunday-night Game of Thrones episode, starting April 25.

Last Thursday (April 14) BBC America launched the first after show based on its hit series Orphan Black. After the Black features hosts Ajay Fry, Morgan Hoffman and Teddy Wilson discussing the plot hints and twists of the sci-fi series’ fourth season.

BBC America president and general manager Sarah Barnett said the aftershow allows the network to superserve its Orphan Black viewer fanbase.

“These shows have a raw, unfiltered feeling of true access to talent both in front of and behind the camera — and given how central TV is to pop culture this fuels the conversation in such an organic way,” Barnett said. “What’s more, it’s the most relevant lead out possible to follow a new episode of Orphan Black.” And, she noted, “it’s relatively cost effective.”

“It’s passion, cloned,” Barnett said, playing off the multiple cloned characters Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany plays. “It’s a virtuous circle of feeding and fueling fan love for our show.”  

Will AMC’s Breaking Bad’s finale season repeat as the outstanding drama? Can ABC’s Modern Family make it five comedy series wins in a row? Are Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black and House of Cards ready to break through?

Those are among the questions to ponder following Mindy Kaling and Carson Daly’s announcement of the 66th Primetime Emmy nominations, with the ceremony slated to air on NBC on August 25 from Los Angeles.  

To repeat, the concluding campaign of Breaking Bad will have to top HBO’s True Detective and Game of Thrones, and Netflix’s House of Cards. Moreover, Vince Gilligan’s final turns of the Walter White saga will have to surpass AMC stablemate and four-time winner Mad Men and PBS’s Downton Abbey.

For its part, Modern Family is looking to match NBC’s Frasier 1994-98 run with a comedy category five-peat of its own. CBS’s Big Bang Theory is in the hunt again, along with FX’s Louie and Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black. HBO is well-represented with Veep and rookie Silicon Valley vying for the statue.

Per usual, HBO set the nomination pace with 99, down from 108 for the 2013 season. CBS was second with 47, one more than NBC. FX, which had 26 last year, jumped into fourth with 45. ABC had 37 nods.

Streaming service Netflix continues to make waves among traditional providers and in Tinseltown, notching 31 nods, 17 more than a year ago. AMC accumulated 26, while Showtime garnered 24, seven fewer than in 2013. However, the premium programmer had an industry-best 11 actor nominations, including a half dozen among the main actor categories. Fox had 18 total nominations.

HBO’s biggest series ever, Game of Thrones, led all drama series with 19 nods, including two in the key acting categories: Lena Headey as best supporting actress for her portrayal of Cersei Lannister, and Peter Dinklage for his Tyrion Lannister.

For its part, FX scored very big, as miniseries Fargo earned 18 nominations, including nods for Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman as top thespians, while American Horror Story's "Coven" iteration earned 17. Breaking Bad had 16 for its farewell trek, the most for a basic-cable drama and the most in its run, as did the HBO telefilm The Normal Heart. NBC's venerable Saturday Night Live welcomed 14 nods, while Netflix streamed up a baker's dozen of nods for House of Cards, one more than Orange Is the New Black. HBO's True Detective also tallied 12 nominations.

The best drama actor nominees are topped by last year’s winner, Jeff Daniels in HBO’s The Newsroom. He will look to hold off fellow HBOers Woody Harrelson and Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey in True Detective. That marks the first time a cable network has three nominees in this major category.

Kevin Spacey earned a second nomination for Netflix's House of Cards. Bryan Cranston is in the running with his final turn as Breaking Bad’s high school chemistry teacher turned criminal Walter White, along with perennial contender, Jon Hamm’s Don Draper in AMC’s Mad Men.

Claire Danes will get a chance to add a third consecutive best drama actress statue for her work on Showtime's Homeland. The premium network also has another nominee with Lizzy Caplan in its Masters of Sex. Julianna Margulies for CBS’s The Good Wife and Kerry Washinton for ABC’s Scandal represent broadcast’s hopes here, while PBS and Netflix are represented by Michelle Dockery in Downton Abbey and Robin Wright in House of Cards, respectively.

Showtime matched HBO’s three drama actor noms with a trio among the comedy ranks with Matt LeBlanc for Episodes, William Macy for Shameless and Don Cheadle for House of Lies. Louis C.K. is also in the running for FX’s Louie as is Ricky Gervais for Netflix's Derek. They will all be looking to unseat Jimmy Parson, who has taken home three Emmys for his role as Dr. Sheldon Cooper on CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, including the 2013 statue.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus may score a comedy actress three-peat for HBO’s Veep. Her competition: Lena Dunham for HBO’s Girls; Melissa McCarthy for CBS’s Mike & Molly; Edie Falco for Showtime’s Nurse Jackie, Taylor Schilling for Orange Is the New Black; and Amy Poehler for NBC’s Parks and Recreation.

With the movies and miniseries categories divided again after three years of togetherness, cable captured more nominations.

Among miniseries, it's all cable with FX grabbing two nods for the aforementioned Fargo and American Horror Story.  Premium network Starz, which counted a record 11 nominations overall, is in this game here with The White Queen, along with HBO's Treme.  Then, there's the A&E Networks' presentation of Bonnie & Clyde, which was simulcast on Lifetime, A&E and History, but was submitted by and credited as one of the women's-targeted service's record 17 nominations.

Cable also has an 80% chance to take home the statue in the outstanding television movie mode: HBO has a pair of entries with the acclaimed The Normal Heart and Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight, while Lifetime's The Trip to Bountiful and Nat Geo Channel's Killing Kennedy also garnered nods. PBS's Sherlock: His Last Vow is the outlier.

Competition will be keen in what has been a cable stronghold: best variety show. Last year, The Colbert Report ended Comedy Central teammate The Daily Show With Jon Stewart's 10-year winning streak. Will host Steven Colbert gain another win over Stewart before he replaces David Letterman at CBS? Or does HBO's long-running Real Time With Bill Maher rise above NBC's stalwart Saturday Night Live, newcomer The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, or ABC's late-night entry, Jimmy Kimmel Live.

As to best reality competition series, cable has two cracks with Lifetime's Project Runway, nomimated for a 10th straight year, and Bravo's Top Chef. NBC's The Voice is looking to sing again about an Emmy win, while category kingpin, CBS's  The Amazing Race, looks to regain its throne. ABC's Dancing With The Stars and Fox's So You Think You Dance round out the nominees.

Mindy Kaling and Carson Daly announced the Emmy nominations.

The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards will air live on NBC, on Monday, August 25 at 8 p.m. (ET)   from the Nokia Theatre at L.A. LIVE In Los Angeles. Seth Myers will host, while Don Mischer, with a number of Super Bowl halftime shows, Olympic opening ceremonies and Oscars to his credit, will executive-produce.

Check out a list of the 2014 nominees here.