Well, it’s pretty much official: AMC’s The Walking Dead is huge. Like, monster. After all the talk about the first season and that cultural zeitgeist penetration that it achieved, I figured that the second season premiere would do really well. I didn’t expect it to do this well. The season two premiere drew the biggest ratings for any broadcast in basic cable history in the highly coveted 18-49 demo (previously set by the series premiere of The Dead Zone in 2002, according to Deadline.).
Not only were the 7.3 million total viewers enough to make The Walking Dead the most watched show on cable (not to mention AMC) but when you take into account the two re-airings, the total number of viewers jumps to a whopping 11 million. (That’s more total viewers than many network shows.)
Ratings for The Walking Dead – Season 2, Episode 1
- 9pm airing – 7.3 million
- Adults 18-49 – 4.8 million
Last season’s numbers:
Ratings for The Walking Dead – Season 1, Episode 6
- 10pm airing – 6 million viewers
- Adults 18-49 – 4 million viewers
Ratings for The Walking Dead – Season 1, Episode 5
- 10pm airing – 5.6 million viewers
- Adults 18-49 – 3.7 million viewers
Ratings for The Walking Dead – Season 1, Episode 4
- 10pm airing – 4.8 million viewers
Ratings for The Walking Dead – Season 1, Episode 3
- 10pm airing – 5.1 million viewers
- Adults 18-49 – 3.3 million viewers
Ratings for The Walking Dead – Season 1, Episode 2
- 10pm airing – 4.7 million viewers
- Adults 18-49 – 3.3 million viewers
Ratings for The Walking Dead – Season 1, Episode 1
- 10pm airing – 5.3 million viewers
- Adults 18-49 – 3.6 million viewers
Talk about the show itself here. Talk about the ratings below.
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Impressive.
You’ll find I’m full of surprises. (sorry, I couldn’t resist)
Well done.
Amazing – guess everybody’s feeling the “bite” from this show.
Get it? Bite? Heh, heh…..ok, I’ll go away…
Can we have a little more detail about the record? What was the previous record holder?
I think it might’ve been the Monk finale, but I’m not sure.
For a second there, I thought you said “Mork” finale.
I did some digging and found out the answer, It’s now in the article.
Mork would’ve been awesome.
and its being talked about on sites like Grantland (sports focused pop culture run by ESPN)….pretty epic.
great news. Well deserved. My wife actually WANTED to watch this show. She hates horror and zombie movies and she’s asking me what time it comes on. mind was shattered.
iCarly goes down!
this made me laugh out loud at work, i needed that
It’s not completely a joke. iCarly is one of the most successful cable shows ever. Huge ratings.
If that were on TV, it would easily break the record.
Yeah, the 2009 premiere did 8.4 million viewers. Crazy.
Oh I know, that’s why I laughed. iCarly is a monster of a show which is just crazy.
Only 110 more to catch up to the last episode of MASH.
Awesome! Obviously this show’s popularity (along with Game of Thrones) is going to open some doors for more geekish tv shows and networks taking chances, I just wonder if these ratings finally get Y The Last Man done. It seems like such an obvious fit, especially with BKV’s tv ties.
All of my non-comics friends are loving the show.
In my dream world, Wednesday night TV consists of Y: The Last Man and Preacher.
I watched the entire marathon yesterday from 2:30 pm to the premier and I watched the replay and the Talking Dead show. I’m a devoted fan.
Great to see the success of the show. Those are crazy impressive ratings. AMC is the only channel on TV that has shows I actually watch live. I usually DVR everything and watch later when I can fast forward through the commercials. The only things I watch when thy are on (other than sporting events) are Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead.
Just think what could happen if those 11 million watchers decided to turn into 11 million readers!
That would be great, but sadly, nothing seems to bring in new comic readers. Hell, I’m a comic reader and even I didn’t start reading Walking Dead because of the show.
Or even if 1 million views turned into readers.
Very surprised it got this much viewers. We’ll see how it goes with next week. Also two things:
A) This will make AMC very happy on firing Darabont. (Why need him if they got better results then with him?)
B) Kirkman is going to need more wheel barrels for his dough.
it’ll only make AMC happy if the numbers stay up. if the viewers abandon ship after the post Darabount episodes come and go, AMC could scramble.
If anything these huge numbers would make them more nervous about firing Darabount.
This NYMag “Vulture” article puts the episode’s ratings in perspective when compared to other cable and network shows this week:
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/10/walking_dead_how_big.html
Apparently, it got better ratings than anything in NBC’s Thursday night lineup.