AMC’s ‘The Killing’ revives itself in the ratings for season 3 premiere

Is “The Killing” dead yet? Far from it, at least based on the ratings that have come in from AMC after a pretty aggressive promotional push.

Let’s start here with the positive, which is something that you really do not get too many opportunities to associate with this show. The mystery series from Veena Sud premiered with 1.8 million viewers Sunday across its two-hour premiere, which is the same number that it drew from the season 2 launch last year. In addition, this also was an increase of 20% from this past season’s finale … a possible sign that people are more than interested even without the name “Rosie Larsen” floating around at almost every turn.

Now, you better take out your umbrella for some pessimism as dark as the stormy Seattle sky. While the ratings were even with last season premiere, this season came on at a time when there was almost no competition at all, save for “Game of Thrones” hitting the airwaves at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. (Last year, the show premiered while network television was still going strong for the spring.) You could say that it being a summer month offsets that a little, but still. Also, this rating still puts “The Killing” on the bottom end of AMC shows when it comes to total viewers, especially since “The Walking Dead” routinely gets five times this.

At the end of the day, these numbers alone are not enough to be an indicator of any one thing. It’s going to be a while before we know for 100% certain just what is going to happen to the show moving forward, especially as the new mystery for Linden and Holder pans out.

Are you impressed by the numbers at all, or at least impressed with the show? If you want to read more, we have the hook-up for you over at the link here.

Photo: AMC