Primetime Cable Ratings: October 12, 2014

THE WALKING DEAD completely dominated television on Sunday night. The fifth season premiere commanded a record breaking 17.3 million viewers and an 8.7 rating in Adults 18-49. I beat everything on TV on the night, including the NFL game on NBC. It topped last year's record breaking performance by 1.2 million viewers and rose 6% in the demo ratings. AMC and DEAD programming took four of the top five spots on the chart.

Following THE WALKING DEAD was the great companion series TALKING DEAD, hosted by Chris Hardwick. The talk show about the episode you just watched held onto 6.9 million viewers and a 3.5 rating in Adults 18-49. It was up 1.6 million viewers and 35% in the demo, from the 2013 fall premiere. A great two hours programming from AMC.

Game two of the NLCS did relatively well, grabbing 4.4 million viewers. It is one of the few times a playoff game can get dwarfed by regular programming.

Rank	Show	Net	Time	Viewers*	A18-49
1	The Walking Dead	AMC	9:00 PM	17.29	8.7
2	Talking Dead	AMC	10:00 PM	6.88	3.5
3	The Walking Dead	AMC	8:00 PM	6.77	3.0
4	NLCS Game #2	FS1	8:00 PM	4.37	1.1
5	The Walking Dead	AMC	7:00 PM	3.60	1.5
6	Alaska: The Last Frontier	DISC	9:00 PM	2.34	0.6
7	The Real Housewives/ NJ	BRVO	8:00 PM	2.18	1.0
8	Austin & Ally	DSNY	8:00 PM	2.08	0.4
9	The Big Bang Theory	TBS	10:30 PM	2.05	0.8
10	The Big Bang Theory	TBS	10:00 PM	1.97	0.7
11	The Big Bang Theory	TBS	9:30 PM	1.82	0.7
12	Law & Order: SVU	USA	7:00 PM	1.81	0.5
13	The Big Bang Theory	TBS	8:30 PM	1.78	0.6
14	The Big Bang Theory	TBS	9:00 PM	1.68	0.6
15	Family Guy	ADSM	10:30 PM	1.67	0.8

* - in millions