Ratings Review: TALKING DEAD (Spring 2013)

TALKING DEAD may be one of the smartest moves that any network has done when programming a series as the lead out of a mega hit, like THE WALKING DEAD. What better of a companion to the zombie drama than a talk show geeking out about the series.

Last year, in season one of the series, AMC scheduled TALKING DEAD an hour, or two, after the end of the premiere airing of each episode. Rating hovered around 1 million viewers. Not bad for a Sunday night at 11 p.m. or even 12 a.m. But, the season finale aired directly after the season finale of THE WALKING DEAD and it obliterated is series average, drawing over 4 million viewers. AMC took note and adapted for season two.

This spring half of this season, every episode aired immediately after THE WALKING DEAD and it averaged over 4 million viewer per episode. Also, AMC expanded the series from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. It now has a solid one-two punch on sunday nights. You can now catch host, Chris Hardwick, on BBC America for his show THE NERDIST, a TV adaptation of his very popular podcast of the same name.

TALKING DEAD (Sundays at 10:00 p.m., on AMC)

Date	Viewers*	A18-49	+/-
02/10/13	4.14	2.2
02/17/13	4.01	2.2	-3%
02/24/13	3.50	1.9	-13%
03/03/13	3.75	2.0	+7%
03/10/13	3.43	1.8	-8%
03/17/13	3.71	1.9	+8%
03/24/13	4.49	2.2	+21%
03/31/13	5.16	2.6	+15%

* - in millions