'The Walking Dead' Season 5 Ratings: Zombies Take On Football; Can The Show Maintain The High Numbers?

For the past few weeks it has been zombies vs. football on Sunday nights. “Sunday Night Football” on NBC typically serves as the most popular show on broadcast television each week, but lately, it has been getting some competition from AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” The ratings for Nov. 2 revealed that for the second time in Season 5 of the AMC drama series, the zombie show beat out football in the key 18-49 demographic.

On Sunday, episode 4 of “The Walking Dead” pulled a 7.2 rating among adults 18-48, while “Sunday Night Football” earned only a 6.1. It should be noted that in overall viewers, “Sunday Night Football” still came out ahead, netting 17 million viewers to “The Walking Dead’s” 14.5 million.

“The Walking Dead’s” surprising competition with “Sunday Night Football” is part of an overall impressive showing so far this season by the AMC show. Season 5 of the AMC series premiered on Oct. 13 to 17.3 million people, beating “Sunday Night Football in the ratings outright and breaking a record for the network. But can “The Walking Dead” keep it up?

The forecast looks bright for the zombie show’s future. Season 5 will only feature 4 more episodes in 2014 before going on a mid-season break. When the show returns in February 2015 the NFL season will be wrapping up and “Sunday Night Football” will not even be in competition for ratings for the second half of the season. “The Walking Dead’s” ratings could even see a boost as a result.

The only thing that could bring down “The Walking Dead” is a potential blackout on DirecTV due to contentious contract negotiations between AMC and the satellite provider, but that is not likely to occur. “The Walking Dead” should continue to rule Sunday nights on cable for the rest of the season.

Are you watching football or “The Walking Dead” on Sundays? Tweet your thoughts to @Ja9GarofaloTV.