Probably no one expected ’The Walking Dead’, a horror drama show about a zombie apocalypse, to become one of the highest viewed series on TV when it first premiered back in 2010.
The first season lasted 6 episodes, a sort of careful attempt by AMC to put a zombie show on TV, but it was an immediate success with the US viewers, numbering above 5 million per episode. For a cable series, this was unexpectedly high, for a zombie show it was unimaginable.
The second season built on the success of the first, but grew in size and featured 13 episodes.
Average viewers kept growing throughout the season with the season finale reaching 9 million people, and averaging 6.9 million viewers each episode.
By the time the third season aired, the fanbase of ‘The Walking Dead’ had grown to a huge community and viewer numbers went through the roof. In fact, the average in season 3 was 10.4 million viewers, in season 4 it was 13.3 million, while in season 5 was 14.4 million viewers per episode, which was on the same level as the top watched shows on national TV in the US. To this day, the season 5 premiere is the most-watched series episode in cable history with 17.3 million viewers.
Although it’s been rumored that George A. Romero might try to seize the zombie throne from The Walking Dead with an adaptation of ‘Empire of the Dead’, the creators of the current number 1 cable show have been quicker to expand their lead by creating a spinoff titled ‘Fear The Walking Dead’.
The new zombie show from AMC will be set in Los Angeles and will follow a male divorced teacher, a female guidance counselor, and her two children–a son and a daughter–in the zombie apocalypse shortly after the first outbreak.
‘Fear The Walking Dead’ will premiere sometime in August, an information leaked by the creator Robert Kirkman: “I’m really excited for Fear The Walking Dead to debut in August and for people to see just what we’ve done”.
The first season of the spinoff will last for 6 episodes, but they will try to differentiate it from the original series: “When you watch Fear The Walking Dead, it’s going to be very visually different than the way The Walking Dead looks. For starters, this isn’t going to be shot on 60mm film; Fear The Walking Dead is actually going to be shot digitally, so there’s going to be a very different feel to the show” added Kirkman.