The Walking Dead Kills Its Competition With Big Ratings Debut
First Published: October 15, 2012 4:14 PM EDT Credit: Gene Page/AMC
Caption The gang fend off zombies on the Season 3 premiere of ‘The Walking Dead’LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- “The Walking Dead” is back and in a big, big way.
The ratings were released on Monday afternoon and AMC’s cable drama brought in 10.9 million viewers, when it rolled out its Season 3 premiere at 9 PM on the network.
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According to AMC, the show’s premiere numbers have made it the “biggest telecast for a drama in basic cable history,” this despite not being aired on DISH, which recently dropped the network.
The premiere was up by 50 percent over its Season 2 premiere.
The only show that beat out “The Walking Dead” at 9 PM was NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” which was watched by 18.5 million people.
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By contrast, “The Good Wife” on CBS pulled in about 9 million viewers, while “Revenge” on ABC” had 8.2 million, per Zap2It.
“The Walking Dead” also grew in viewers during repeat airings on Sunday night. Around 3.5 million viewers tuned in when it re-aired the Season 3 premiere at 10 PM and another 850,000 viewers were counted for the midnight showing, bringing the show’s overall total to 15.2 million.
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