The Walking Dead dominates

The first season of The Walking Dead was excellent and a lot of people watched:

“The Walking Dead,” AMC’s hugely popular drama, became the biggest hit of the fall television season on Sunday night, with the premiere of its third season posting ratings that surpassed every other nonsports program on television in most viewing categories.

The show attracted 10.9 million total viewers for its 9 p.m. initial broadcast: that beat every entertainment show on every broadcast network on Sunday night, topped only by National Football League play on NBC – and possibly “60 Minutes” on CBS. (The overnight figures for the 7 p.m. hour on CBS included both some N.F.L. games and “60 Minutes.”)

More significantly, “Dead” pulled in 7.3 million viewers ages 18 to 49, the category advertisers most prefer. Not only did that beat just about everything else on Sunday, except football, it beat everything else in nonsports programming that has been on television this fall. That means it ranks above such hits as “Modern Family” on ABC (seven million), “The Big Bang Theory” on CBS (6.3 million) and “The Voice” on NBC (6.1 million.)