The Walking Dead returns with another record-breaking ratings for its latest season, as the hit AMC show brought in 17.3 million viewers, with a 7.7 rating in adults 18-49, who are continuously loyal to the arguably most brutal and violent episode to date. The premiere of the fifth season is by far the best of the series, beating the record of the premiere of the previous season, which had 16.11 million viewers.
The president of AMC, Charlie Collier, mentioned in one of his statement that he is thankful to his friends and colleagues Scott Gimple, Robert Kirkman, and Greg Nicotero (who also the director of the record-breaking season five premiere), Dave Alpert, Gale Anne Hurd and lastly, Tom Luse. He is also grateful to have their producers and staff for the best things they do; without them and their hard work, the show would not be the number one show on TV. The Walking Dead allows the fans to have an amazing and unique experience. He also said that this is a rare TV shows nowadays that can make the viewers not cannibalized by unstable times of airing.
The current ratings of the fifth season are way better than the premiere of the comic-based series in 2010, which has a record of 5.3 million then, and the number of viewers for the current season is almost more than 2 million than the previous season’s finale, which had 15.7 million people tuning in. And as Variety reports, the show also beat its previous record for adults 18-49, which brought in 11 million last night, beating the 8.2 million brought in from last season’s premiere and mid-season return.
According to New York Magazine’s staff Joe Adalian, he ranks the season five premiere as cable TV’s most popular and known telecast ever, not including sports telecast. This record was previously titled to High School Musical 2.
Good fortune also seems to be with the companion series, Talking Dead. This after show brought in 6.9 million loyal viewers and 4.5 million adults under 50.
Because of the popularity of the series, unsurprisingly, season 6 was announced by the AMC even before the premiere of the season five, and we cannot blame the network for being confident, having ratings like these. They are now coming up with series and episodes where different characters will be followed throughout their journey to survive the Zombieland.