“Walking,” “Talking Dead” Premieres Huge Hits for AMC

AMC/Gene Page(NEW YORK) — Fans tuned in in droves to see just who fell in the Season 7 premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead.

According to Variety, the episode that had Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s bat-wielding big bad Negan braining two of Rick Grimes’ gang drew some 17 million fans — down slightly from the series high Season 5 premiere of 17.29 million viewers — but still by far, the biggest show on TV, and more than two million more viewers that watched the Season 6 premiere.

What’s more, the show that followed, a 90-minute edition of AMC’s Talking Dead, drew more than 7.5 million viewers, who processed their grief over (SPOILER ALERT) Glenn and Abraham during a live show held at a rainy Hollywood Forever Cemetery. During the broadcast, host Chris Hardwick noted it hardly ever rains in L.A., as it was as if “Jesus was crying” along with the fans for the fallen heroes.

The trade notes that not wanting to be spoiled by social media may have led more people to tune in, night-of, which is increasingly rare nowadays. 

Walking Dead star Norman Reedus, whose Daryl Dixon was spared the wrath of Negan’s barbed wire covered bat Lucille — but not a terrible future as his captive by the show’s end — told ABC’s Peter Travers the lengths that the cast and crew goes through to keep the show’s secrets secret. 

“It’s changed every year. We used to get a lot of scripts in advance, and then show got more and more popular, and now we know right at the last minute. It’s even kept from us ’til the last minute.”

Reedus says, and the episode proved, that “no one is safe” on The Walking Dead — not even fan favorites.

The secrecy bleeds, so to speak, into the actors’ process. “It’s actually kind of helped us, I think…It’s a lot like life: you always feel like you have more time with people, and you never think it’s gonna come, and when it does come, it’s a shocker.”

The Walking Dead returns next Sunday, October 30, at 9 p.m. Eastern on AMC. 

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