The Walking Dead Season 5 Premiere Becomes Most Watched Non-Sports Telecast In Cable History

Nothing can stop the undead–or at least, America’s fascincation with them.

The Live+3 rankings from The Walking Dead’s  Season 5 premiere are in from Deadline, and to no one’s surprise, the episode dominated with 5.08 million viewers in the category. The category’s previous record-holder, The Walking Dead’s Season 4 premiere (again unsurprising), only netted 4.1 million. 

Combining the Live+3 rankings with the Live+Same Day rankings, the episode was watched by 22.372 million viewers. The Walking Dead Season 5 premiere is also the most watched non-sports telecast in cable history. With those numbers, The Walking Dead trounced the ratings performances of this fall’s biggest cable and broadcast shows, including The Big Bang Theory and Sunday Night Football.

The Walking Dead continues this Sunday–to destroy some more records–on AMC.