'The Walking Dead’ Devours 14.8M Viewers

The Walking Dead’s mid-season final episode last night drew an impressive 14.8 million viewers, network officials said Monday.

Sunday’s audience for AMC’s zombie-themed series was up 23% from last season’s corresponding episode. In addition, the show drew 9.6 million adults 18-49, which was up 24% from season four’s mid-season episode.

Overall, the fifth season of The Walking Dead is averaging 14.6 million viewers and 9.5 million adults 18-49. The show is the most-watched on television among adults 18-49, beating out the broadcast networks, including NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecasts.

AMC’s Talking Dead aftershow delivered the highest-rated, mid-season finale in its history, with 6.6 million viewers and 4.2 million adults 18-49, said network officials.

“The audience-driven success of The Walking Dead and Talking Dead (even before time-shifting) is remarkable, and something we never take for granted,” said Charlie Collier, AMC president in a statement. “We hold in such high regard Robert Kirkman, Scott Gimple and all of our exceptional executive producers, cast and crew for their passionate efforts that led to television history for The Walking Dead once again last night.”

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.