Despite The Grammy Awards & Downtown Abbey, The Walking Dead Broke Ratings Records

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Looks like people were really craving some zombie action. The midseason premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead drew in huge viewership on Sunday despite airing at the same time as the Grammy Awards and Downton Abbey

The Walking Dead is on a roll. Their Season 2 finale broke records for AMC and back in October last year, Season 3 broke that record with 10.9 million viewers. Care to take a stab at the new number?

Sunday’s episode (read our recap here) brought in 12.3 million. Collider writes, “The episode also proved strong in the coveted 18-49 demo, garnering 7.7 million viewers with the key demographic.  In fact, the series average for the 18-49 demo is higher than those of network hits like Modern FamilyNCIS, and even The Big Bang Theory.”

It’s impressive to see the show continue to grow but especially noteworthy when you realize it aired against a very popular award show. The Grammys had 28 million viewers Sunday night. And you might not think Downton Abbey and The Walking Dead would have crossover appeal but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s larger than we all think. TWD Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd is a fan of both and thinks they have a few things in common.

Meanwhile, the record-breaking episode is on AMC.com for free viewing. AMC writes, “This is a one-time-only event and will not be happening with future episodes for the rest of this season.”

(via Collider)

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Jill Pantozzi
Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."