‘Walking Dead’ premiere draws record viewers

LOS ANGELES - Reuters

‘The Walking Dead’ zombies appear in a scene from the second season.

AMC’s cult zombie horror series “The Walking Dead” drew its largest audience in the show’s history, 16.1 million viewers, for the season premiere on Oct. 13, the U.S. cable television network said on Oct. 14.

According to Nielsen data provided by AMC, the hour-long season premiere was the top-rated show across all U.S. television programming on Sunday night in the 18-49 demographic, including NBC’s NFL “Sunday Night Football” game, which usually draws the largest viewership in the demographic.

AMC said more than 5 million users discussed the season four premiere on Facebook and Twitter, and the episode generated more than 1.1 million tweets on Oct. 13.

“The Walking Dead,” based on a comic book series of the same name, follows a sheriff’s deputy as he tries to save survivors from flesh-eating zombies in a post-apocalyptic world.