'Walking Dead' Spinoff Sets Ratings Record

The new spinoff series from The Walking Dead franchise, Fear The Walking Dead, premiered Sunday night on AMC and set cable ratings on fire. The 90-minute-long first episode of the series, which drew 10.1 total viewers, was the most watched debut of a cable series ever, better than TNT's Raising the Bar and AMC's own Breaking Bad spinoff, Better Call Saul.

Fear the Walking Dead lured 6.3 million viewers from the 18-49 age group, the demographic that matters the most to TV networks, and its ratings were better than those of every episode of the first two seasons of its parent series.

Fan reaction to the debut was mixed. The series is a prequel of sorts to The Walking Dead; it's set in Los Angeles in the early days of the zombie plague, and in the beginning, the characters have no idea what's happening. Many viewers complained on social media that the pace of the episode was slow and there there were too few zombies.

The early ratings are good news for AMC, but it should be noted that a great debut isn't a guarantee of a stellar run. Ratings for Better Call Saul fell off precipitously after its first episode, and Raising the Bar was eventually cancelled by TNT.