Sunday night’s season-five premiere of The Walking Dead lured more than 17 million viewers, breaking ratings records in the process as well as topping the social TV charts, even beating out Sunday Night Football.
But it’s not just that one show that AMC can boast ratings success this season - The Walking Dead’s after show, Talking Dead, was able to keep 40 percent of its lead-in audience for an average of 6.9 million viewers for the follow-up hour.
While the main event, Walking Dead, remains a hit cable phenomenon because of excellent production quality, a stellar cast and a storyline that can’t be beat, its after-show seems to be successful for almost the opposite reasons.
Hosted by the Nerdist himself, Chris Hardwick, Talking Dead features a few representatives from the show with a celebrity guest who all discuss the episode everyone just saw. This past Sunday’s episode discussed the season premiere with showrunner Scott Gimple, executive producer and special effects designer Greg Nicotero, and TV personality and fan, Conan O’Brien. The group talked about everything from visual effects in a particularly bloody scene, certain characters’ motivations throughout the episode and some insider information, when Hardwick noticed that a character from an earlier season (who now plays The Penguin in Fox’s Gotham) appears briefly in the premiere.
And while the show is a simple setup with a host and guests on a couch with some fan questions, the show plays on a conversation already happening while fueling the series’ fandom. Hardwick highlights social polls throughout the episode, asking fan questions that come up on the show, as well as fan questions for the show’s representatives from email.
As an example, below is a clip from Sunday’s episode where the guests discuss whether Conan could survive a zombie apocalypse:
Talking Dead has also inspired other after-shows for cable hits including Teen Wolf and Sons of Anarchy.
Read more at Variety.
Brief Take: Talking Dead was one of the only survivors from AMC’s recent unscripted slashing, and for good reason. The fan-driven show is an inexpensive way for AMC to expand The Walking Dead‘s brand, while giving viewers a simple outlet to voice their questions and get behind-the-scenes information for the big budget main event.
[Image courtesy of AMC]
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