Fear the Walking Dead Sets New Cable Viewing Records

The Sunday night premiere of Fear the Walking Dead, AMC's latest zombie drama, has set a new viewing record for a debuting cable show. Variety has reported that the show's first episode pulled in 10.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched cable series launch ever recorded.

The show is a spinoff from the channel's hugely popular The Walking Dead, which will soon be in its sixth season and has itself set audience records. Charlie Collier, president of AMC, told Entertainment Weekly that it was "increasingly difficult to evaluate a show's success on night one." However, he did go on thank The Walking Dead's army of fans, stating: "To have a companion series to the number one show on television driving communal, urgent viewing, social activity, and pop cultural relevance of this magnitude is truly differentiating."

Fear the Walking Dead is set at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, and focuses upon an LA family trying to survive as the outbreak begins. Like its parent show, this first season will just feature six episodes, but a full, 13-episode second season is promised in 2016.

The Walking Dead itself premiered in 2010 with a more modest 5.4 million viewers, but it has quickly grown in popularity, scoring a massive audience of 17.3 million for its season five premiere in October 2014. Season six begins on October 11, 2015.