Ratings: ‘The Walking Dead’ smashes more records; ‘Resurrection’ season 2 in danger

We wanted to wait for at least a little while to post some of the ratings updates from the lineup Sunday, mostly because of our desire to see how the fifth-season premiere of “The Walking Dead” fared over on AMC.

To be honest, we expected a little bit of a decline given how most shows that top out early tend to lost a few viewers over time. However, that is surprisingly not happening here. Instead, the show set another record Sunday with 17.3 million viewers watching the show live, and that included an 8.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic. While these are not huge increases over the previous record, it is a record all the same and it shows just what the ceiling is for this zombie franchise. This is far and away better than anything else on television this season, and even trumps most NFL football broadcasts so far.

Another interesting note here is that with a 3.5, “Talking Dead” was also rated higher than any other program in primetime. “Once Upon a Time” fell to a 2.6, and it was in second place.

As for a few other ratings notes, what in the world happening to “Resurrection“? With just a 1.4 rating, the show has plummeted hard throughout this second season. Maybe you can blame “The Walking Dead” for this, but the show got more than a 3.0 rating when it originally premiered up against it. Its losing viewers simply because the show is not good enough. That’s the only reason you see that big of an erosion with most other factors still the same.

We are going to have more ratings news soon, so of course be on the lookout for that. Also, head over here to see all of our “Walking Dead” premiere coverage, or here if you want to sign up to get some further scoop right now via our CarterMatt Newsletter.