Game of Thrones to End After Season 7?

One of the more hotly debated television topics of the past few years has been the shelf life of HBO's Game of Thrones. As the series is based off of the George RR Martin series "A Song of Ice and Fire," fans and the creative team alike have known since the show's inception that there would eventually be a complete ending for the series. However, as the seasons have gone buy without Martin releasing the sixth (of seven- although even Martin has said that might change to eight) book, everyone involved in the series has begun getting more and more nervous regarding the show's end game. This week, Thrones's showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss officially stated that the plan is for the series to come to a close after its seventh season. They both cite the recent end of Breaking Bad (which decided early in its run that it would end at the end of its fifth season) as giving them the idea of imposing a clear ending date for the show. The series is currently gearing up for the premiere of its fourth season this coming April, which will cover the second half of Martin's third novel. That being said, HBO programming president Michael Lombardo has gone on the record stating that the exact final length of the series is still something the showrunners need to discuss with the network. But, as seven-eight seasons is the average age for HBO's more robust and popular shows, Lombardo would be on board for a seven year run. Now that the ballpark end date for Thrones has been announced, perhaps this might inspire Martin to start writing a bit faster? We can only hope.