Exclusives
AMC’s zombie show returns to lowest premiere rating since season two, posting a 5.7 in 18-49s. That’s still way better than everything on broadcast last week besides the Grammys.
The Walking Dead left the air with yet another record on Sunday. The AMC show posted its best-ever finale numbers to close out season five, capping a year when it saw growth over its fourth season. Dead averaged 15.8 million total viewers, according to Nielsen overnights, including 10.4 million adults 18-49. The 90-minute finale started at 9 p.m.
Averaging 25.3 million viewers — an 11% drop from last year — The Grammy Awards fell to its lowest viewership since 2009. The music awards telecast faced competition from the season premiere of The Walking Dead.
Grammys, ‘Dead’ Premiere Knock ‘Simpsons’
With stiff competition from The Grammy Awards and The Walking Dead‘s season premiere, The Simpsons tied its lowest rating ever Sunday night. Ratings for both those programs will not be out until later today. The Grammys went until 11:45 p.m., so fast national ratings do not provide an accurate picture of the show’s performance; they measure only timeslot, not actual program, ratings and do not take into account time zone differences.
The midseason finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead attracted 14.8 million viewers and marked a midseason finale high for the series — up 23% from the comparable outing (and comparable weekend) in 2013.
AMC Networks has turned The Walking Dead into a bullhorn for airing its grievance with DirecTV. The cabler sounded the alarm during Sunday’s episode that its carriage agreement with the satcaster is due to expire at year’s end — before the zombie drama’s fifth season closer airs next year. The spot did not mention DirecTV by name but it urged concerned viewers to call the 855-KEEPAMC hotline or visit the KeepAMC.com website.
For all the billions TV networks lavish on live sports, an AMC series about the undead outdrew NBC’s Sunday Night Football, and an FX program about sideshow freaks topped the Major League Baseball playoffs. The season premiere of the The Walking Dead broke its own record on Oct. 12, drawing the largest audience of any drama in cable TV history. The show attracted 17.3 million total viewers and 11 million in the younger, 18-to-49-year-old demo.
The Walking Dead’s debut on MyNetworkTV Wednesday night scored the best demo premiere for the programming service in six seasons. Versus the year-ago premiere of Law & Order: Criminal Intent on Wednesday night in the time slot, the AMC zombie drama is up 13% in households (0.9 vs. 0.8) and up 67% in the demo (0.5 vs. 0.3).
MNT Sees Strong Fall With ‘Dead,’ ‘Mentalist’
On Wednesday, Oct. 1, MNT will begin airing the first four seasons — 67 episodes — of The Walking Dead, the AMC mega-hit. MNT has the exclusive broadcast off-net rights to the drama for at least one season. MNT will also add Warner Bros.’ The Mentalist to its lineup on Oct. 2. It will be the CBS drama’s first airing in broadcast syndication.
Two episodes of The Mentalist will air on Thursdays, joining The Walking Dead as new additions to the program services’ 2014-15 lineup. Not returning this fall are House and Monk.
AMC’s The Walking Dead will be part of the MyNetworkTV programming slate starting this fall. MNT plans to air two episodes from past seasons of the popular show one night per week.
Watch out zombies, the Parents Television Council is coming for you. The PTC is targeting AMC’s The Walking Dead over the drama’s violent content. The PTC is taking issue with The Walking Dead‘s rating, TV-14, claiming the violence depicted is too much for the rating given.
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. (AP) — An actor on the television show “The Walking Dead” has been charged with driving drunk in Georgia, where the show is filmed. Peachtree City police arrested 70-year-old Scott Wilson at 2 a.m. Aug. 18 after someone called 911 to report a Chrysler PT Cruiser driving erratically. On the AMC drama, […]
