The Walking Dead Ratings Rise with Season 5 Finale Setting Records

The Walking Dead ratings

The wolves finally came out to play on The Walking Dead Season 5 finale episode ‘Conquer’ and with the assistance of a former crazy man-turned-sensei, helped deliver record ratings yet again for the hit zombie drama.

By the time Rick was done carrying out Deanna’s wishes and the 90-minute episode wrapped up with a pair of post-break teasers of what’s to come in Season 6, The Walking Dead ratings for the final Season 5 episode soared to 15.8 total million viewers. That breaks the former season finale record of 15.7 million set by the Season 4 finale a year ago, but falls short of the Season 4 premiere’s all-time ratings record of  17.3 million viewers.


The beauty of The Walking Dead is how it performs for advertisers in the coveted 18-49 demo and the Season 5 finale did not disappoint. With 10.4 million in the key demo, this year’s finale topped last year’s by 0.2 million or an 8.2 rating versus 8.0 last year.

The Talking Dead after show with host Chris Hardwick also benefited from the finale hype with 7.5 million total viewers and a 4.9 million in the 18-49 demo. It didn’t hurt that Melissa McBride, Norman Reedus and Lennie James were all on Hardwick’s couch and eager to talk about the big finale.

Next up in the zombie apocalypse is the companion series Fear The Walking Dead that will premiere in late summer with a six-episode run. The expectation is that the new series will end one week before The Walking Dead Season 6 premieres in mid-October.

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