‘The Walking Dead’ season 5: Andrew J. West, more promoted; plus, season 4 finale ratings

Now that the dust has settled on “The Walking Dead” season 4, we now know some of the characters who are surviving until the fall. Not only that, but we know that some of them are getting a pretty sweet promotion to boot.

Sources confirm that in addition to Michael Cudlitz (Abraham) now being a series regular, Andrew J. West (Gareth), Alanna Masterson (Tara), and Christian Serratos (Rosita) have also been promoted. This means that the three characters will likely stick around for a little while, or at least that AMC sees them all as too valuable to risk losing to another show. Of the three, Tara had the largest overall role in terms of episode count this past season, though we did see Rosita on a few occasions.

As for West, he was set up to be potentially the new big bad as the supposed leader of the gang at Terminus. We recently addressed the issue of whether or not there is cannibalism afoot, and this is something that will hopefully be answered more in-depth in the fall.

Ratings news – For those interested in if the show managed to set a new record for itself in the finale (which it has done in the past), the answer today is “no.” However, it was at least close. The show drew 15.7 million viewers, and also a 8.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic. That latter number is so far ahead the rest of scripted programming on TV that they are looking up at it. The new record could still be set for the premiere, at least if people can get over what was a somewhat disappointing end to the season.

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Photo: AMC