The Walking Dead Premiere Could Bring in a Record 18 Million Viewers

For a popular TV series eight seasons in the making, drawing in a huge number of people for a season premiere isn’t surprising. However, things are shaping up to help The Walking Dead’s season 8 opening episode break the 18 million viewer mark, which would break TWD’s own record for biggest premiere of a cable series.

October 22nd is still two months away but the buzz building around this season seems stronger than last year’s pre-season commotion.

The season 7 premiere came close to dethroning season 5’s as the most watched cable premiere, with many people predicting the viewership numbers to top the 17.3 million mark season 5 set in 2014. In the end, it topped out at 17.03 million, about a 1% difference in viewership compared to the season 5 opener.

An extremely popular series such as The Walking Dead will tend to draw huge premiere ratings followed by a massive drop off but usually ending with an uptick for the season finale. Last season’s finale registered about 11.3 million viewers, which was a noticeable decline from previous finales. However, the October 22nd premiere is the 100th episode of the series, leading some fans to believe that something absolutely spectacular is going to happen.

Interest should also be picking up from those who dropped the series during later episodes last year, thanks mostly to season 7’s finale and the fact that even the show’s producers said we are most likely transitioning into the second half of the series run.

Other non-TWD related factors that should be helping out the season premiere this year include the fact that there will be no election coverage to get in the way of viewership and the NFL game schedules – Redskins vs. Eagles, doesn’t have the probable playoff implications as the Seahawks vs. Cardinals game last year during the season premiere.

With the amount of hype surrounding this season’s premiere already and the two month lead-in coming up (Google Trends shows interest rising in The Walking Dead starting about two months out from the premiere of nearly every season), there is a very real possibility of breaking season 5’s record and setting the bar north of 18 million for a cable premiere.

Take a look at the 100 episode video from the cast

Who’s watching The Walking Dead Premiere?

Take a look at the Season 8 trailer from Comic-Con