Tag Archives: talking dead

The Walking Dead Posts Best Ratings Ever for a Finale

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walking-dead-5 photoIt shouldn’t be much of a surprise but The Walking Dead continued to flex its muscles as television’s highest rated series. The season finale pulled in a best 15.8 million viewers of which 10.4 million were adults 18-49. That’s great, but doesn’t match the series high, which was this season’s opener which saw 17.3 million viewers.

The series’s 16 episodes ranked in the top 20 entertainment telecasts across all of television for adults 18-49. When you add in sports and specials, the 16 epsiodes all rank in the top 50 telecasts, the first time a series has achieved this in cable history.

The show ended the season as the number one show in adults 18-49 with an average 14.4 million viewers and 9.4 million adults 18-49 live/same day. That’s an increase of 9% in adults 18-49.

The success spilled over to the after show, Chris Hardwick’s Talking Dead. That show saw its best episode to date and pulled in 7.5 million viewers, of which 4.9 million of them were 18-49.

The evening also saw the first teaser ad for The Walking Dead spin-off show Fear the Walking Dead which will debut this summer.

(via AMC)

The Walking Dead Midseason Finale Dominates in Ratings

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the walking dead season 4While The Walking Dead‘s midseason finale didn’t reach the record breaking numbers the premier hit, it still was a massive success. The action packed episode left 12.1 million viewers jaws on the floor with a 6.1 (7.7 million adults) in the key 18-49 demographic. The third season’s miseason finale brought in 10.49 million viewers and earned 5.4 in that same demographic. The series clearly is gaining since last season.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC on Sunday, February 9 at 9pm followed by Talking Dead at 10pm and Comic Book Men at midnight which has had a consistent 1 million viewers.

The Walking Dead is a massive success and is the #1 show in the 18-49 demographic and remains the highest-rated series in the history of cable television. The first eight episodes of its fourth season delivered an average of 13 million viewers and 8.4 million adults 18-49.

The Talking Dead midseason finale had 6 million viewers, including 3.8 million adults 18-49. The show has averaged 4.5 million viewers and 3 million adults 18-49. That’s an increase of 128% since the first half of its second season and up 120% in the coveted 18-49 demo.

From a press release, key Nielsen highlights for the midseason (season four) finale of The Walking Dead:

9 pm airing – 6.5 HH rating
9 pm airing – 12.1 million viewers
9 pm airing – 7.7 million adults 18-49

Key Nielsen highlights (averages) for the first eight episodes of The Walking Dead season four:

9 pm airing – 6.8 HH rating
9 pm airing – 13.0 million viewers
9 pm airing – 8.4 million adults 18-49

Key Nielsen highlights for the mid-season (season three) finale of Talking Dead:

10 pm airing – 3.2 HH rating
10 pm airing – 6.0 million viewers
10 pm airing – 3.8 million adults 18-49

Key Nielsen highlights (averages) for the first eight episodes of Talking Dead season three:

10 pm airing – 2.4 HH rating
10 pm airing – 4.5 million viewers
10 pm airing – 3.0 million adults 18-49

The Walking Dead also flexes its muscle on social media. It was the top show on Twitter with 880,450 show-related Tweets from 391,210 unique authors, generating a total of 43.9 million impressions, according to Nielsen SocialGuide. Twitter activity peaked at 9:48 p.m. EST with 31,861 Tweets-per-minute, representing 83 percent of all television-related Twitter activity at that time. The Walking Dead was also the #1 program for the day in TV-related social media Twitter activity, including the mid-season finale and seven previous episodes that ran during a catch-up marathon on AMC, with the most unique authors and total Tweets. The mid-season finale also generated a number of simultaneous trending topics including #TheWalkingDead, TWD, Hershel, RIP Hershel, Not Hershel and #PrisonShowdown.

You can check out our review here.

The Walking Dead Slays Viewers in it’s Mid-Season Finale Ratings

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24147Walking-Dead-Season-3-1_MDIt’s not returning until February 10, 2013, but The Walking Dead made viewers zombies as they were glued to their televisions for the television show’s mid-season finale. The episode titled “Made to Suffer” drew 15.2 million total viewers for the night. It’s the first cable series in television history to beat all broadcast and cable entertainment series.

That 15.2 million is a combination of the 10.5 million who watched the 9:00 pm premiere, 3.6 million who tuned in at 10:00 pm and the 1.1 million gained during the midnight encore of the episode. Among total viewers the television show is the number one ad supported drama series in the history of basic cable.

The popularity of the show has also moved AMC to move the Talking Dead post-show to the 10pm slot right after the first airing of The Walking Dead. They’re also extending the talk show to one hour.

There’s good reasons that The Walking Dead was named a winner by Entertainment Weekly for the fall season. I only expect great things when the show returns in February.

The Walking Dead Season 3 Premiere Sets Records

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The Sunday premiere of The Walking Dead attracted the most viewers in the series’ history and a new record for the most viewers ever for a basic cable drama series. The series has consistently broken records as the Season 2 finale set previous records for the most viewers of a basic cable show with 9 million. The season 3 premiere topped that with 10.9 million, that’s an increase of 17.5%

The show drew 7.3 million viewers in the important 18-49 demographic, that’s compared to 6 million for the season 2 finale. If you add in the other two showings of the premiere, the first episode brought in 15.2 million viewers. That’s even without the Dish Network which covers 14 million homes in the United States.

But, those monster (sorry couldn’t work in zombie) numbers also extended to Chris Hardwicke’s post-Walking Dead talk show, The Talking Dead. That show had an audience of 2.1 million viewers, that was up 85% from last year’s premiere of the show. Of that, 1.5 million were in that important 18-49 demographic, that’s up 92% from last year.

AMC Renews Unscripted Series “Comic Book Men” and “Talking Dead” For Second Seasons

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AMC’S RENEWS “COMIC BOOK MEN”

AND “TALKING DEAD”

AMC Orders 16 Episodes for Second Seasons of Unscripted Series

New York, NY – May 9, 2012 – AMC announced today a second season pick-up for its unscripted series “Comic Book Men” and “Talking Dead.” “Comic Book Men” is executive produced by Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy), Charlie Corwin’s Original Media (LA Ink, Storm Chasers, Swamp People) and Elyse Seiden (Red State). The series continues to delve into fanboy culture by following the antics in and around Smith’s New Jersey comic shop, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. “Talking Dead,” the network’s first live after show that serves as a platform for discussion for AMC’s series “The Walking Dead,” is executive produced by Michael Davies and co-executive produced by Jen Kelly from Embassy Row. Chris Hardwick  (Nerdist; G4) is the host. Season two of both series consists of 16 half-hour episodes.

“Pinch my fat ass, ’cause I must be dreaming! A thousand thank you’s wouldn’t cover the gratitude I’m feeling right now. And as you might imagine, everyone at SModcast Pictures is in love with everyone at AMC today! Rest assured, Walt, Bry, Mike, Ming and I are suited up and ready to hit the ice for our second season with Team AMC,” said Smith.

“AMC set out to build shows around authentic characters and original worlds, and ‘Comic Book Men’ really delivers on both of these. Charlie Corwin and Kevin have created a truly unique show that is funny and informative – whether you like comic books or not; and the guys from The Stash are the kind of real life experts we always wanted to build the show around,” said Joel Stillerman, AMC’s EVP of original programming, production and digital content. “’Talking Dead’ is just great synergy and it gives our audience a destination to continue the conversation about ‘The Walking Dead.’ We are thrilled that Chris is back to lead the discussion. He is genuinely knowledgeable about the genre, and truly entertaining.”

“‘Talking Dead’ has been an amazing experience and I cannot pile enough hugs and thanks onto AMC for renewing it. I CAN’T WAIT for Season 3 of Walking Dead, so that we can finally talk about Rick meeting [SPOILER] and [SPOILER]-ing him with a heavy-duty [SPOILER] at the [SPOILER]. And let’s not forget all the rest of the [SPOILER]s getting in on the action! [EXPLETIVE] me! It’s going to be great…,”said Hardwick.

“Comic Book Men” allows viewers to see the Secret Stash’s staff and customers geek out over mind-blowing pop culture artifacts and the legends behind them.  Leading the crew behind the Secret Stash counter are moody manager Walt, uber-nerd Mike, career slacker Bryan and Ming, the shop’s go-to whipping boy.  As the team buys, sells and discovers the treasures of the comic collecting world, they share all the juicy details with Kevin through their outrageous podcast, which is woven throughout the series. AMC’s season one of “Comic Book Men” reigns as the most engaging reality program on television.*

*Source: Nielsen TV Brand Effect (IAG), STD (09/12/11 – 4/29/12), A18-49 & A25-54, premiere episodes. All measured primetime broadcast and cable programs included.

“Talking Dead” features Hardwick spending time with fans, actors, producers and TV enthusiasts, recapping that most recent “Dead” episode, and taking questions and comments from viewers. Fans may continue to engage with the after show following the on-air conclusion, online, at amctv.com for more conversations, questions and trivia.

AMC’s Stillerman, Mary Conlon, Vice President of Non-Scripted Original Programming, Jason Fisher, SVP of production and Ari Mark, director of development, oversee the development and production for the network’s unscripted series.

 

About AMC

AMC reigns as the only cable network in history to ever win the Emmy® Award for Outstanding Drama Series four years in a row, as well as the Golden Globe® Award for Best Television Series – Drama for three consecutive years.  Whether commemorating favorite films from every genre and decade or creating acclaimed original programming, the AMC experience is an uncompromising celebration of great stories.  AMC’s original stories include “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” “The Walking Dead,” “The Killing” and “Hell on Wheels.”  AMC further demonstrates its commitment to the art of storytelling with its slate of unscripted original series, as well as curated movie franchises like AMC’s Can’t Get Enough and AMC’s Crazy About.  Available in more than 97 million homes (Source: Nielsen Media Research), AMC is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc. and its sister networks include IFC, Sundance Channel and WE tv.  AMC is available across all platforms, including on-air, online, on demand and mobile.  AMC: Story Matters HereSM.