By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The zombies on “The Walking Dead” may be starting to stagger.
An estimated 14.6 million viewers watched the season premiere of the hit AMC series on Sunday, the Nielsen company said. That’s down from the 17.3 million who saw last year’s season opener and the 16.1 million people who watched in 2013.
Last year’s season premiere was a viewership record for the series, so this year’s numbers may be an indication that the show has peaked in popularity.
AMC points out that “The Walking Dead” was up against a Sunday-night football game between San Francisco and the New York Giants that was competitive to the last play. This year’s season premiere was 90 minutes long, instead of an hour, and the extra time may have turned off some viewers, AMC said.
Last season’s full season average was 14.4 million viewers on the night of an episode’s first showing, up to 20 million when time-delayed viewership was figured in. Time-delayed numbers for this week aren’t immediately available. Among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers that AMC most actively seeks, Sunday’s telecast had 9.42 million viewers, down from 11 million in 2014.
Still, “The Walking Dead” was second in popularity only to “NCIS” among television dramas this past week. The 2.8 million younger viewers that “NCIS” attracted, however, was less than a third of the count of “The Walking Dead.”
CBS easily won the ratings crown for the week, averaging 10.3 million viewers. NBC averaged 7.7 million, and won among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic. ABC averaged 6 million viewers, Fox had 3.7 million, Univision had 2.4 million, the CW had 1.6 million, Telemundo had 1.4 million and ION Television had 1.1 million.
ESPN was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 4.03 million viewers. TBS had 3.43 million, AMC had 2.3 million, Disney had 1.79 million and Fox News Channel had 1.71 million.
NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.3 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight” was second with 8 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.7 million viewers.
Here are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Oct. 5-11. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Football: San Francisco at N.Y. Giants, NBC, 19.59 million.
2. “NCIS,” CBS, 16.87 million.
3. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 15.41 million.
4. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 15.4 million.
5. NFL Football: Indianapolis at Houston, CBS, 15.08 million.
6. “The Walking Dead,” AMC, 14.63 million.
7. NFL Football: Detroit at Seattle, ESPN, 14.4 million.
8. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 14.18 million.
9. “Sunday Night NFL Pre-Game,” NBC, 13.94 million.
10. “Empire,” Fox, 13.1 million.
11. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 12.15 million.
12. “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 11.82 million.
13. “Madam Secretary,” CBS, 11.15 million.
14. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 10.74 million.
15. “Football Night in America,” NBC, 10.57 million.
16. “Scorpion,” CBS, 9.95 million.
17. “Limitless,” CBS, 9.57 million.
18. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 9.08 million.
19. “Survivor,” CBS, 9.07 million.
20. “Blindspot,” NBC, 9.06 million.
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More