The Walking Dead Keep Walking
Three years ago Sheriff Rick Grimes woke up in a hospital to find that his world had changed. Two years ago Rick was leading his band of not-so-merry followers into a deadly traffic jam and spent an entire season on a farm. One year ago, Rick et al. moved into a prison, and this fall Sheriff Rick handed in his badge to become a farmer in the same prison (way to reuse those locations/sets!)
Next fall? Who knows what will happen to Rick, but AMC is counting on all of us tuning in to find out.
“We are very happy to make what has to be one of the most anti-climactic renewal announcements ever: The Walking Dead is renewed for a fifth season,” AMC president Charlie Collier was quoted in AMC’s official blog. Which only makes sense when you realize that this season’s premiere, especially when you include DVR viewing within three days of airing, reached 20.2 million viewers, putting it ahead of perennial ratings juggernaut Sunday Night Football.
Scott Gimple will continue on as the series showrunner, along with the executive producers Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert, Greg Nicotero and Tom Luse. Given the nature of the series, no casting announcements have been made.
The first season of the show premiered on Halloween 2010 with a viewership of 5.35 million and ended that season with just under 6 million views. People clearly told their friends because the second season opened in mid October with 7.26 million and ended just shy 9 million. This growth continued in season three with an starting viewership of 10.87 million while season four premiered on October 13 with a record 16.11 million, over triple its original launch numbers. Note that all of these numbers are based on the first airing in the Eastern Time Zone, not including the repeat a few hours later.
Season four will have sixteen episodes in AMC’s now infamous split season with eight episodes this fall (October 13 to December 6th) and the rest coming spring 2014. No matter what, the dead keep walking, and we keep watching.
