Season Finale of 'The Walking Dead' Garners Huge Numbers and a Finale Record

Courtesy AMC

In "not so shocking" news, AMC just released the numbers from last night's season finale of "The Walking Dead" and of course, they were huge. But were they record breaking? Yes they were...for a finale, but the 15.7 million viewers for "A" ranks third for the series, just behind the season 4 premiere last fall (16.11 million) and the show’s mid-season premiere on Feb. 9 (15.76 million). So the fourth season was pretty damn epic for AMC. Here is the full release from the network:

Last night’s season four finale of “The Walking Dead” set a new finale record, delivering 15.7 million viewers and 10.2 million adults 18-49. The dramatic episode anchored a record-breaking night on AMC, with the live “Talking Dead” aftershow delivering a series record 7.3 million viewers and 4.7 million adults 18-49. To cap the night, the third season finale of AMC’s “Comic Book Men” at midnight was watched by 1.1 million viewers and 715,000 adults 18-49.

Season four set a new viewership record for “The Walking Dead,” averaging 13.3 million live/same day viewers per episode and 8.6 million adults 18-49, an increase of +24%/+22% over the season three average.
“The linear television business is Dead and well,” said Charlie Collier, AMC president. “Thanks to Robert Kirkman, Scott Gimple, the other terrific executive producers and the entire cast, crew and network for working together to bring the fans (myself included) another unforgettable season of ‘The Walking Dead.’ To see this show serve as the centerpiece of a truly historic night on AMC is truly gratifying. So many played a role in this success, across all three shows, in giving the fans a reason to continue to return in ever-greater numbers. And so we say, until next fall, ‘Welcome to Terminus.’”

Following the 9 pm premiere of “The Walking Dead,” AMC presented “Talking Dead,” at 10 pm. Hosted by Chris Hardwick, the most-watched “Talking Dead” episode in series history featured Executive Producer and showrunner Scott Gimple and, for the first time on the show, Andrew Lincoln.

If you were on social media last night, you might have noticed that the show was a top trending topic. It's still at the top of the Facebook trending topic list. Did you take part in the discussion? Were you one of the 15.7 million watching? I seem to recall a very similar "the finale will be super shocking" campaign for the season three finale and folks were a bit disappointed in that finale's outcome. The hype for the finale was huge and no doubt, fans were glued to their screens to see "Who will survive?" I think we were expecting a regular cast member death or two but that didn't happen...and I think there's an odd disappointment in this outcome. Do you agree? What's your take on the finale? We have until October to discuss this. Oh the humanity!

-Larissa Mrykalo