"The Walking Dead" Season 5 Debut Shatters Records; 17.3M Watch
by Dominic Patten
October 13, 2014


With a lot of red meat and explosions galore, the zombie apocalypse returned to AMC last night bigger than ever. The Season 5 debut of "The Walking Dead" pulled in 17.3 million total viewers on Sunday at 9 PM with 11.0 million among adults 18-49.

With a rise of 7% and 6% respectively, that viewership and demo series record chews up the previous high of 16.1 million watching and 10.4 million among the 18-49s that the Season 4 premiere of the blockbuster series drew on October 13 last year.

http://deadline.com/2014/10/walking-dead-ratings-premiere-season-5-amc-850319/

11 million of that viewing audience of 17.3 million are in the adults 18-49 demographic. If The Walking Dead is the only thing that easily attracts the 18-49 demographic these days (on cable or on broadcast), then I don't know what else can. The Walking Dead's viewership figures are astronomical for U.S. cable TV, and the program has astronomical demo numbers as well.

Do their "viewer" numbers count people like me? We don't have cable TV so we buy each TWD episode on Xbox Live and watch it on Monday, right after Sunday's airing.