AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’ led the TV ratings on Sunday night, soundly defeating NBC’s NFL product, Sunday Night Football.
The NFL ratings have been down across the board this season with fan’s citing a lack of interest and Colin Kaepernick and others refusal to stand for the National Anthem as the reason they are tuning out when National Football League games are on TV.
Add to that, Sunday night's game (Seattle Seahawks at Arizona Cardinals) was up against a highly anticipated TWD as last year’s Walking Dead season finale (season six) was a cliffhanger as the show's latest villain (Negan) was set to murder one of the core group and many tuned in to see who was killed.
Spoiler alert…It’s Glenn and Abraham who get beaten to death in the zombie apocalypse series and many tuned in to watch.
According to Deadline:
“Close to a record number of viewers, 17 million, watched Negan off Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz). The premiere had a 8.4 rating in the coveted 18-49 demographic.
The season five premiere still holds the ratings record—17.3 million viewers and an 8.7 rating. Mind you this does not include any DVR or online viewing.”
The full numbers won’t be available until later on Tuesday, but the article also notes that this year’s TWD premiere titled “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be” bested “the early 18-49 numbers for the NFL and NBC’s rising SNF this weekend by 58%.”