Fear The Waking Dead Posts Sharp Increase in Ratings

Fear the Walking Dead saw a sharp increase in its ratings on Sunday night with its first episode to go head to head with Sunday Night Football in Season 5. This comes after the series hit an all-time low in the week prior, showing a strong 26% increase in total audience on the heels of Episode 5x12 posting only 1.14 million viewers.

Sunday night's Fear the Walking Dead Episode 5x13 hauled in 1.446 million viewers. It was a much-needed increase for the series which faced dipping below one million live viewers for the first time in the history of either Walking Dead show. Episode 5x13 also proved to be one of the more interesting episodes through an otherwise lackluster season, at least through about three-quarters of its run time.

Episode 5x13 came with the death of the character who appeared to be the villain of the current season, paying off his mysterious motivations by placing guilt on some of the survivors and also introducing a more menacing foe. The show seems to be embracing a cartoonish nature in its most recent couple of seasons, emphasized by the new villain who seems to be a political cowgirl of sorts who wants to bully new acquaintances into doing her and her group's bidding.

Episode 5x14 will aim to continue exploring the mystery behind the new villain whose name has been revealed as Virginia. The characters around her, a group she refers to as "pioneers" of sorts, refer to her as "Ginny." Going forward, the surviving group of Morgan, Alicia, Strand, Sarah, Wendell, John, June, Luciana, and Charlie might just find themselves calling her "boss."

It will be interesting to see how Fear the Walking Dead performs in the wake of introducing yet another new foe in a crowded season of murky direction. Much of the season has vaguely been about trying to help others with some sort of enemy constantly lurking. Now, with the enemy apparently fully revealed, a true antagonist might garner a bit more interest for viewers.

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Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm ET on AMC.