The Walking Dead Continues to Break Records Worldwide

LOS ANGELES: With its worldwide rollout across 120 countries through Fox International Channels (FIC), The Walking Dead has reached record-breaking audience results, hot on the heels of a hit U.S. debut on AMC.

In most countries where ratings were available at press time, the zombie-themed series was the highest rated program on pay TV of the night. The show outperformed every U.S. cable series premiere in the year or more, building at least 100 percent in audience over the average by period.

In the U.K., The Walking Dead was the highest rated show in its time slot on pay TV. It was also the highest rated premiere for a new show on FX in five years. FX UK notched up 659,000 viewers for the show, after adding up all of the airings by Sunday. Based on the pattern of previous series, FIC expects to get to 1 million once delayed viewing is added in.

In Italy, the debut episode delivered 360,000 viewers, with a 17.2-percent share of the total viewing audience on Sky channels. It was the highest rated show of the night on any pay-TV channel and the second highest rated performance of any series ever on Fox.

In Spain, the show drew 105,000 viewers, with a 10.2-percent share. It was the highest rated series premiere on FOX for 2010.

Over in Southeast Asia, the series garnered 380,000 viewers, beating all other Western channels. In Singapore, the series debuted 425-percent higher than the time-slot average. In the Philippines, it was 1,700-percent higher than the time-slot average. In Korea, the show drew 57,000 viewers and was the highest rated premiere on Fox this year.

The series had similar success across Latin America. In Mexico it exceeded the time-slot average by 230 percent, in Argentina by 341 percent, in Colombia by 176 percent, in Peru by 970 percent and in Venezuela by 123 percent.

“In just a few months, FIC and AMC have demonstrated the effects of a truly global collaboration resulting in the biggest global launch in TV’s history,” said David Haslingden, the CEO and president of Fox International Channels. “The strong performance results and numbers we are seeing this week, demonstrate the strong appeal of this high quality drama, as well as, the tremendous marketing efforts of our teams worldwide.”

“The Walking Dead is Must-Subscribe-To-Pay-TV at its best,” added Hernan Lopez, the COO of Fox International Channels. “As our platforms around the world continue to seek exclusive first run series in order to drive subscriptions, we’re thrilled to bring them exactly that, on a massive global scale.”

To watch an interview with the series’ stars, please click here.