‘The Walking Dead’ season 4: Are the World Series, NFL football both zombie chow?
Even when its numbers are not as phenomenal as they are for some other shows, we still get a certain amount of joy and entertainment out of checking out the ratings performance of “The Walking Dead” on AMC. After all, this is a show that is an unstoppable force, and while not everyone may love this season so far or Killer Carol (as she may forever be called), the numbers don’t lie.
This week, the numbers are telling us something that is even more interesting than usual when it comes to the show’s dominance: It’s pretty substantial. The new episode from Sunday brought out a 6.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic and almost 13 million viewers, which is a tick down again from the week before. However, let’s be sure to also look at things here with a certain perspective in mind. This episode was airing not only against an NFL game, but also the World Series. That’s not exactly something that you can put on your DVR and catch the excitement for later. It is as close to must-watch TV as you are probably going to get.
But for the sake of comparison, though, let’s compare the “Walking Dead” ratings to these two great sporting events. Know that these are preliminary numbers that will change slightly tomorrow, but here is where they stand for now.
NFL Football – A 5.6 rating in the demo, and 14.9 million viewers. Note that this was for a pretty awful game, and while it will probably adjust up, it shouldn’t adjust that much that it would be passing the zombie drama in the most important measure.
World Series – A 4.4 rating in the demo, and 15.4 million viewers. This teaches us that baseball is more of an older person’s sport, but also that for whatever reason, the most important sporting event in baseball of the year cannot beat a football game with a terrible team in it. Sad. Either way, “Walking Dead” wins!
As we’ve said in the past, we don’t expect another record rating to possibly come until the midseason finale, but even then, a better bet for a big number could be when the show returns in the winter, potentially after the Super Bowl.
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Photo: AMC