Yahoo News TV Ratings: ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Gets Solid Start for AMC
The latest entry in the Walking Dead franchise at AMC got off to a promising start.
The Walking Dead: Dead City‘s June 18 premiere became the most watched drama series debut of 2023 on cable, based on same-day Nielsen ratings. AMC also says the show had a successful launch on its AMC+ streaming service.
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The series, which follows long-time Walking Dead regulars Lauren Cohan (Maggie) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Negan) to a zombified New York City, debuted with 683,000 viewers on AMC. Simulcasts on BBC America and IFC and a couple of replays pushed the first-night, on-air total to 1.12 million viewers. The premiere also gathered 283,000 viewers in AMC’s core demographic of adults 25-54 (and 449,000 including the other airings), also best among drama series debuts on cable this year.
“We are thrilled so many viewers joined Maggie and Negan in the streets of Manhattan for the first episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City,” said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks. “The thrill ride keeps rolling from here, and we can’t wait for the fans to see all the twists and turns in the city that never sleeps. Turns out walkers don’t sleep, either.”
Dead City also became the top series premiere ever on AMC+ in both viewers and acquisition (i.e., people subscribing to watch a show), surpassing Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches (though as usual with streaming platforms, detailed viewing figures aren’t made public).
The days of millions of viewers watching a cable series on-air the night it debuts — at least one not named (or related to) Yellowstone — are largely past, but Dead City does compare favorably to several recent AMC premieres. The series beat the same-day viewer tallies for the first episodes of Interview With the Vampire (622,000 viewers), Mayfair Witches (577,000) and Tales of the Walking Dead (572,000).
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