HBO chief settles 'Game of Thrones' Jon Snow death question once and for all

Spoiler alert if you haven't watched the season-five finale of "Game of Thrones"!

Is Jon Snow still alive? HBO's top programming executive has answered the question once and for all.

That has been the major topic of debate among fans since season five's finale saw Snow's bloody demise at the hands of his fellow Night's Watch soldiers.

Fans have been tracking the whereabouts of the actor who plays Jon, Kit Harington, and paying close attention to his hair while trying to prove or disprove whether the character will return for season six. "Dead is dead as dead as dead," HBO's programming president, Michael Lombardo, said Thursday during the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, California.

He continued: "He be dead. Yes. From everything I’ve seen, heard, read, Jon Snow is indeed dead."

Lombardo's statement gels with what GOT's showrunner and Harrington had already said previously: Jon Snow is dead.

The surviving "Game of Thrones" characters will be back when the series returns next spring