Fear The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead spin-off series, debuted last night on AMC with impressive rating results. The zombie show brought in over 10.1 million.
This premiere earned AMC a new ratings record. The previous record for a ratings debut was Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul which earned 6.9 million viewers when it aired back in February, the LA Times reported.
Fear is off to a strong start but hasn't topped Dead, which during its season five premiere brought in 17.3 million viewers. The spin-off series did beat out the debut of Dead which aired five years ago.
AMC's president Charlie Collier spoke about the success of Fear. "It is increasingly difficult to evaluate a show’s success on night one. However, we are releasing these live/same-day ratings because "Fear the Walking Dead" delivered record-breaking numbers that are all the more special in this era of time-shifted viewing and audience fragmentation. To have a companion series to the No. 1 show on television driving communal, urgent viewing, social activity and pop cultural relevance of this magnitude is truly differentiating," said Collier.
As previously reported, Fear focuses on the days and events leading up to the apocalypse that takes place in Dead. This is a completely separate storyline from the main characters of Dead.