WALKING DEAD Season 3 Premiere Lands Over 15 Million Viewers

The biggest show of the fall season among Adults 18-49 is on AMC. Last night, AMC premiered season three of "The Walking Dead" and outdelivered cable and broadcast hits including "Hatfields & McCoys," "Jersey Shore," "Modern Family," "The Big Bang Theory" and "The Voice." The 9pm ET premiere garnered 10.9 million viewers and a 7.4 HH rating making it the highest rated episode in series history, and growing more than 50% over last season's premiere. The season 3 premiere now reigns as the biggest telecast for any drama series in basic cable history among all viewers. "The Walking Dead" encored at 10pm with 3.5 million viewers and midnight with 850,000 viewers delivering 15.2 million viewers for the night. In addition, the season two premiere of "Talking Dead" at 11pm attracted 2.1 million viewers, growing 85% over the season one premiere.

"Thank you to the fans for making 'The Walking Dead' such a tremendous success. We are honored and humbled that television's largest adult audience resides on AMC.  So many people on both sides of the camera worked tirelessly on this project, and I thank and congratulate each of them for their amazing contribution," said Charlie Collier, president of AMC. 

AMC's "The Walking Dead" is available on every major television provider except DISH. DISH dropped AMC and its sister networks IFC, WE tv and Sundance Channel, to gain leverage in an unrelated lawsuit.

For the past two years, "The Walking Dead" has received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup (2012/2011). In 2010, "The Walking Dead" secured a Golden Globe nomination for Best Television Series - Drama. "The Walking Dead" tells the story of the months and years that follow the zombie apocalypse. It tracks a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, who travel in search of a safety and security.