Ratings for The Walking Dead season seven premiere are in, and they’re bigger than Abraham’s balls. “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be,” arguably the most anticipated episode of TV for any show this year, was watched by 17 million viewers and a ridiculous 8.4 million in the 18-49 demographic. To put that number into context: last week’s highest rated broadcast series in the key demo was Fox’s Empire, with 3.5 million — The Walking Dead even bested NBC’s Sunday Night Football, which is generally the cream of the TV crop.
It wasn’t a record, though. The Walking Dead “just barely fell short of the drama’s all-time high – the season five premiere – which still stands as the show’s biggest overnight rating with 17.3 million viewers and an 8.8 rating,” according to Entertainment Weekly. But “AMC expects the ratings will set a new record once more forms of viewing are added.” (The premiere already beat the brains out of the season six finale, which scored 14.2/6.9 million. The cliffhanger gamble wasn’t successful creatively, but it was commercially.)
The record-setting season five premiere saw Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and Bob tied up in Terminus, and Glenn nearly killed with a baseball bat (that sounds familiar). How can The Walking Dead hope to get even bigger without the threat of Glenn being smashed by lumber? Two words: lacrosse stick.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
