The Walking Dead was a hit:
Nielsen says 5.3 million people watched the 90-minute bow at 10 p.m. on Halloween, giving AMC its biggest audience ever for an original series, and far surpassing the numbers for network staples such as Mad Men and Breaking Bad. (The network's all-time draw remains the mini-series Broken Trail, which premiered to nearly 10 million viewers back in 2006.) Add in same-night repeats of Dead, and the show's premiere audience rises to just over 8 million viewers. What's more, Dead was particularly big with viewers under 50: Around 3.6 million in that demo watched, making the show the biggest cable-series premiere among the young folks this year. So does this mean Dead will be back for a second season?
Who'd have thought that a show about a bleak, hopeless world in which government had entirely failed in its responsibility to protect people from catastrophe would be so popular? Personally, I look forward to the time when political consultants divide television audiences into Walking Dead-watching Real Americans and pro-Mad Men elitists.
