Let there be no doubt: zombies still reign supreme on cable.
Fear the Walking Dead, AMC's new companion series to The Walking Dead, scored a record average of 10.1 million viewers for its premiere. That number utterly crushes the 5.4 million viewership The Walking Dead earned for its debut five years ago, and it's enough to make Fear the most-watched cable series premiere ever.
The Walking Dead's viewer numbers have climbed steadily upward, to a record high of 17.3 million viewers for its Season 5 premiere. So Fear has a long way to go if it hopes to match the ratings of the mothership.
Fear the Walking Dead set another debut-episode record among the coveted 18-49 viewer demographic, which earned it a 4.9 rating. The record was previously held by another AMC series premiere: the Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul nabbed a 4.4 rating on its opening night.
Both the average viewers and demographic ratings are expected to climb even higher after recorded viewings are accounted for.
Fear the Walking Dead follows the story of another group of zombie apocalypse survivors — this time in Los Angeles, tracing their origins from the time the outbreak began. The group is mostly made up of a dysfunctional, blended family, whose lives and situations were set up in the premiere episode, slowly building to their gradual realization that something big is going on.
Though a bit sluggish, the debut provided some compelling characters — most notably drug addict Nick Clark, played by Frank Dillane, who questions his own sanity after being one of the first to witness a real zombie. Here's a preview of what's to come in the remainder of the first season.
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