Claims

Factual · Their own work or organisation

“I liked him. I watched the first season. My character died. I think eccentric is always better than evil.”

Peter Thiel, interviewed in NYT column · 11 January 2017 · Peter Thiel said, 'If you're evil, you're not bad.' Here's the context (Snopes)

Thiel said he had watched the first season of HBO's Silicon Valley, that the character based on him died, and that he liked the character.

Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.

The second judge would not resolve this claim; the verdict shown is the first judge's.

What would count as true or false

Judged as of 2017-01-11. Thiel's own viewing and liking can only be shown by his statement, so check three things: (a) a record (the interview transcript) shows Thiel said he watched the first season and liked the character; (b) a character in HBO's Silicon Valley is widely reported as based on Thiel (e.g. Peter Gregory); (c) that character died in the first season. TRUE: all three hold. MOSTLY TRUE: (a) and (b) hold and the character died, but the death came just outside the first season (e.g. at the opening of season 2 rather than in season 1), a timing detail the claim does not rest on. MIXED: the statement is documented, but one of the main parts fails, e.g. the show's creators or credible reporting deny the character was based on Thiel. MOSTLY FALSE: the character based on Thiel did not die but was written out in some other way, or Thiel's quoted words materially differ. FALSE: no character based on Thiel, or the character based on him never died or left the show, or the transcript shows Thiel did not make the statement.

Evidence

1. One of the main actors on HBO's 'Silicon Valley' died after five episodes — after giving us the perfect embodiment of tech-world hubris Yahoo Finance (article by Aaron Gell) · 13 April 2015

   “Based loosely on the slightly less-awkward, creepily soft-spoken PayPal co-founder and Facebook angel Peter Thiel, Gregory was a linchpin of the first season of the series”

2. One of the main actors on HBO's 'Silicon Valley' died after five episodes — after giving us the perfect embodiment of tech-world hubris Yahoo Finance (article by Aaron Gell) · 13 April 2015

   “The new season of HBO's "Silicon Valley" debuted yesterday. The episode featured a funeral for one of the first season's leading characters, the eccentric venture capitalist Peter Gregory, who was played by a 48-year old actor named Christopher Evan Welch.”

3. List of Silicon Valley characters Wikipedia · 28 March 2019 Own record

   “Welch died after the fifth episode of season 1 was completed, but the character remained present off-screen for the remainder of the season. Gregory later died in the season 2 premiere.”

4. Studio 1.0 : BLOOMBERG : January 10, 2015 12:30pm-1:01pm EST : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive Internet Archive (Bloomberg TV Studio 1.0 transcript) · 10 January 2015 Own record

   “i've seen a few of the episodes. they would dispute they are really portraying me on the show.”

Reasoning

Independent reporting describes the Silicon Valley character Peter Gregory as 'based loosely on' Peter Thiel and as central to the show's first season (E1). The evidence shows the character's funeral came in the season 2 premiere, after actor Christopher Evan Welch died during filming of season 1 (E2, E3). That puts the death just outside the first season, which the criteria treat as a timing detail fitting mostly true. The evidence has no transcript of the 2017 interview itself; the closest is a 2015 interview in which Thiel said he had 'seen a few of the episodes' (E4), so the verdict takes the quoted statement as given, as recorded in the claim.

Cite this claim

Peter Thiel, “Thiel said he had watched the first season of HBO's Silicon Valley, that the character based on him died, and that he liked the character.” (said 11 January 2017). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_73daedc5ef8a, method 0.1.0+3e03e2df. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_73daedc5ef8a