AMC’s “The Walking Dead” attracted 12.3 million viewers for its Season 3 midseason premiere on Sunday night, according to ratings numbers released Monday morning.
The audience is the show’s largest to date, surpassing the Season 3 premiere’s audience of 10.9 million last October.
The Grammys on CBS drew the largest audience Sunday night, averaging 24.5 million primetime viewers, down from 39.9 million in 2012.
The network was quick to point out that 2012’s Grammys came on the heels of the unexpected death of Whitney Houston—for whom the Grammy’s paid homage—and that this year’s audience was 1.7 million viewers larger than the 2011 Grammy broadcast.
ABC (5.6 million viewer average), NBC and Fox (3.5 million each) rounded out Sunday night’s primetime ratings.
Personal Take
“The Walking Dead” midseason premiere did not disappoint. Although the episode was subpar in some parts, it did nothing to displease its fan base.
Sunday night’s episode moved the story along a little more slowly than usual, but took great strides in the character development of the once-docile Glenn, who showed a lot of hutzpah in expressing disagreement with Rick.
True to his character, the one-handed Merle did what it took to survive, even if that meant severing the ties he’d formed with the maniacal Governor.
While this viewer would likely have given in and let Merle join the group, kudos to Rick for sticking to his “Ricktatorship” mentality.
Speaking of mentality, Rick’s going mental at the end of the episode is setting up yet another seemingly insurmountable obstacle in the group’s quest to find its place in the zombie apocalyptic world.
As reported here, the long-awaited appearance of former NFL wide receiver Hines Ward as a zombie took place in Sunday’s episode, though his onscreen appearance lasted for only a few seconds.
If you haven’t watched “The Walking Dead” before, go to the back of the class, catch up on Seasons 1 and 2 on Netflix, and Season 3 before Season 4 hits the air in October.
“The Walking Dead” airs on AMC at 7 p.m. in Provo.
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