AMC’s ‘Into the Badlands’ has huge opening thanks to ‘The Walking Dead’

The great news (for now) is in when it comes to the ratings of AMC’s “Into the Badlands.” The show had the benefit on Sunday of airing following a new episode of “The Walking Dead,” and it clearly reaped some huge rewards.

The premiere of the show drew a total of 6.4 million viewers on Sunday night, and to go along with that a very-impressive 3.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic that actually puts it ahead of “Supergirl” and “Blindspot” as the #1 new show of the fall. It’s still not ahead of either “Fear the Walking Dead” or “Better Call Saul” as the #1 new show of the year for AMC, but we cannot imagine they are too upset about that. They’re drawing numbers right now that most other cable networks could only hope to have.

With “Into the Badlands,” the network clearly took what we would label a calculated risk for them. With the way in which that they launched the show, there was always going to be a chance that viewers would completely ignore the show and give it the “Low Winter Sun” treatment. That show was reviled for airing between “Breaking Bad” and “Talking Bad,” and eventually its ratings sank to the point of cancellation. It is possible that eventually, that could happen here, as well, as we know many people were annoyed about having to wait until close to 11:00 p.m. Eastern time to watch “Talking Dead.”

For now, it’s still good news, and maybe AMC feels that even if a good chunk of these viewers don’t return, it was still worth it to expose the martial-arts series to the biggest pool of viewers possible.

Are you happy for “Into the Badlands”? Let us know your take one way or another in the comments.