'Silicon Valley' to live stream on Twitch with cast Q&A, gameplay session

HBO is teaming up with streaming service Twitch to promote its most tech-savvy series, Silicon Valley, ahead of the show’s second season premiere.

Twitch and HBO announced today that the show’s cast—Thomas Middleditch, Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr, and Zach Woods—will appear on a Twitch live stream on April 8 at 3 p.m. ET. The cast will play a game and answer questions from the community live during the stream, and will also show an exclusive clip from the second season premiere, which debuts on April 12.

The Q&A will be followed by a live stream of the series’ pilot episode, for newcomers to the show who would like to jump in from the start. When the stream is launched, viewers will be able to find it via Twitch’s main page.

The streaming of HBO’s pilot is a first for a major TV network on the platform, which is predominantly used for live streaming video games—but has come to include many more types of entertainment, from concerts to talk shows. Silicon Valley seems like a perfect fit, and the stars from the show do play games enough themselves that the move doesn’t come off only as a publicity stunt. Nanjiani runs a game-focused podcast called The Indoor Kids on the Nerdist network, while Middleditch has a Twitch streaming channel already.

The timing will also come at an opportune time for HBO, as any Twitch viewers interested in the show won’t need an HBO cable subscription to watch the show. With HBO Now set to launch this month, any interest the live stream causes will likely help Now get off its feet in the first few weeks.