‘The Walking Dead’ Breaks More Basic Cable Ratings Records In Midseason Premiere
Grammys? What Grammys? Airing against the second most watched Grammy Awards in history, AMC’s mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead at 9 PM posted rating records of its own. The zombie drama hit series highs in all categories with remarkable 8.1 million total viewers, 5.4 million adults 18-49 and 4.4 million adults 25-54. The Walking Dead‘s 18-49 and 25-54 deliveries were the highest ever for a basic cable drama series, beating the previous record, posted by the AMC zombie series’ Season 2 opener in October by 12% and 6% respectively. In total viewers, The Walking Dead‘s midseason debut ranks behind only the series finale of USA’s Monk and 4 episodes of TNT’s juggernaut The Closer. For the night, The Walking Dead averaged 10.1 million viewers, including the 11 PM and 12:30 AM encores. At 10PM, the premiere of Kevin Smith’s unscripted series Comic Book Men held onto a quarter of its huge lead-in, drawing 2 million total viewers. “It is a great night for AMC,” the network’s president Charlie Collier said. “We’re thrilled to see this incredible record breaking response to The Walking Dead, and Comic Book Men is off to a strong start as well.”
*Hate = Ratings*
I’m with Chris Carter above. Comic Book Men holds no interest for me and it seemed to me to be kind of sexist. A good 5 minutes was devoted to asking each male cast member who the hottest female character in comic books is. How about some female perspective? I’m sure there are plenty of women out there who are obsessed with comics as well. I enjoy the character development this season. I enjoy the zombies as well but it’s about more than them. I’ll be tuning in next week.
Formerfan…you are so right. I was never a fan of yours. Just not a fan of anybody anymore.
Walking Dead is the best show on TV. Nothing comes close. Norman Reedus will be nominated for an Emmy.
Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire. And Breaking Bad. And Mad Men. Fringe. Other than that, yeah, I’d say so.
You forgot to add Justified and Homeland to that list.
First, I wish people would be clear about which show they are talking about as two are being discussed.
“Former Fan” refers to a boring season opener, which cannot be TWD as that was the 7th episode of season 2. Not much of a fan if you don’t know that. Likewise, if all you want is endless zombies then your definitely asking for a short run because you would get bored with that as well. Further, Kirkman has made it clear “people are what its about” and the zombies are secondary.
I think AMC made a huge blunder with the placement of “Comic Book Men”, which I did not watch. So many of the TWD viewers have never read the graphic novels (comics) that Kirkman created, and could give a rats butt about comic book collectors and dealers. What real fans of the show want after Walking Dead is “Talking Dead”. There was huge disappointment in the fan base last night that TD has been pushed back so late.
I’ve read every issue of TWD, and love it. And I could give a rats butt about which issue of Batman is hot. Really? A comic book dealer? Did all the shows about pawn brokers and stuff get big enough ratings that AMC saw a cash bonanza??
Hey AMC, at least try to study your viewers wants before you throw cash down a hole.
Yeah I was getting really annoyed by watching CBM to see TWD preview for next week’s show…lol, those numbers should be interesting after that…
I was Fast Forwarding almost entire episode. I watched 40 minutes episode in like 15 minutes. So boring and senseless that was. Every time they opened their mouth to give another boring speech about nothing i pushed button. I skipped entire Hershel’s speech in the bar. And then that entire speech with those two other guys that came. And I pushed the Fast Forward button every time when Carol showed up….
And in this episode I used FF button the most. At first it was like: “O’k this looks like another boring talking so I will skip 30 seconds till the next scene” And then 30 seconds turned to 2 minutes and then 5 minutes. And here I am – skipping 20-25 minutes of the show. Because no one wants to hear for the 1000 time how they will whine to each other.
We want action. We want to see how they will SURVIVE. But those days are gone. Somehow they don’t have to worry about the food. And the fuel for cars. And farm is magical place where zombies don’t pay visits. So our survivors don’t have other things to do then fighting with each other. Because they are bored. And didn’t it occurred to them that once they would have to fight zombies to survive – they would forgot their problems with each other and would be in peace
You know everybody says that Twihards should demand quality of Twilight movies from producers. I say we have to demand quality from Walking Dead producers. And teach them if they will give us bad seasons then we will not watch. But here we are – braking another records.
I agree with you to a large extent, especially about the speeches. Frankly, the dialogue is terrible. Every week, I watch, and I wait, hoping against hope it will get better. Decent actors, great location and look, genuinely creepy walkers… But I don’t ever care one wit what comes out of any of their mouths. Nothing clever, nothing ironic, nothing funny. It always feels like drama words for the sake of sounding dramatic… but no substance. Since the pilot, this show has been a disappointment.
” I skipped entire Hershel’s speech in the bar.”
Kill yourself because that was some top notch acting and one of the biggest character turning points in the show to date.
You don’t deserve story. Just go look at pretty lights or something.
Well I would gladly be a zombie for free just for a chance to have that opportunity. Its art. Its sad to me what some people don’t think about …
Umm Ney-Sayer, if you don’t like it, go away. WE obviously do like it to stop bring a jerk-a-potamus…
Love the show. It’s about people. Not Zombies. That moment in the bar was fantastic. If Zombies had come in it would be more heads exploding and chases. Same old. This scene took our characters to a whole other level.
And right now they’re on the farm trying to figure shit out. And it’s complicated. If it was all zombie attacks it would be boring.
I WILL give them credit for the hooligans in the bar. That was the most nerve-wracking (in a good way) the show has been in a long, long time.