The evil geniuses behind The Walking Dead and its brand new sister series, Fear the Walking Dead, are killing it. With its 90-minute pilot episode, Fear the Walking Dead shattered records and officially had the most watched series premiere in cable history, with a whopping 10.1 million viewers tuning in to watch the start of the zombie apocalypse. Talk about a cult following.

FTWD also scored number 1 in all key demos, TVByTheNumbers reports; the show brought in 6.3 million viewers in 18-to-49 adults, the holy grail of TV demographics. So if there were any doubt over whether audiences would take to FTWD​ the way they did with its predecessor, things are looking pretty good. AMC, for one, is very happy.

From TVByTheNumbers:

“Thank you and congratulations to Robert Kirkman, Dave Erickson, the brilliant executive producers and the entire cast and crew of ‘Fear the Walking Dead,’” said Charlie Collier, president of AMC and SundanceTV. “It is increasingly difficult to evaluate a show’s success on night one. However, we are releasing these live/same day ratings because ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ delivered record-breaking numbers that are all the more special in this era of time-shifted viewing and audience fragmentation. To have a companion series to the #1 show on television driving communal, urgent viewing, social activity and pop cultural relevance of this magnitude is truly differentiating.” 

Hope you DVR'd this one. 

[via TVByTheNumbers]