Ratings Watch: ‘The Walking Dead’ Dips in Premiere, But Still a Powerhouse

Michael Schneider October 18, 2015, 12:54 pm

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The Walking Dead may be down, but the zombies are still dominant.

The Season 6 debut of Walking Dead on Oct. 11 averaged 19.5 million viewers after three days of DVR and VOD usage. That was down from last year’s season premiere (22.4 million) and February’s midseason return (20.3 million) but still dominant.

Meanwhile, NCIS won the week, leaping ahead of Sunday Night Football. Steve Kroft’s 60 Minutes interview with President Obama propelled the newsmagazine into Nielsen’s top 10 broadcasts among viewers, adults 18-49 and adults 25-54.

And freshman drama Blindspot continued to impress, adding 4.3 million more viewers in DVR and VOD lift. The freshman thriller is the No. 1 DVR/VOD gainer among all broadcast programs for the third week in a row.

Here are the top 25 shows (including Live+3 DVR and VOD data) for the week of October 5 to October 11.

RANK	SHOW & NETWORK	LIVE+3 DAYS DVR/VOD	WATCHED LIVE/ SAME DAY
1	NCIS CBS	19.8	16.9
2	Sunday Night Football: New Orleans vs. Dallas NBC The Big Bang Theory CBS	19.6 19.6	19.6 15.4
4	The Walking Dead AMC	19.5	14.6
5	Empire Fox	17.0	13.1
6	NCIS: New Orleans CBS	16.4	14.2
7	60 Minutes CBS	15.9	15.4
8	Thursday Night Football: Houston vs. Indianapolis CBS/NFL Network	15.2	15.1
9	Monday Night Football: Seattle vs. Detroit ESPN	14.5	14.4
10	The Voice (Monday) NBC	14.0	12.2
11	Blue Bloods CBS	13.8	10.7
12	Blindspot NBC	13.4	9.1
13	Dancing with the Stars (Monday) ABC	13.2	11.8
14	Madam Secretary CBS Scorpion CBS	13.0 13.0	11.2 10.0
16	Limitless CBS	12.2	9.6
17	Criminal Minds CBS Scandal ABC	12.0 12.0	9.1 8.8
19	Modern Family ABC	11.4	8.0
20	Hawai’i Five-0 CBS	11.3	9.0
21	Survivor CBS	11.0	9.1
22	The Blacklist NBC Grey’s Anatomy ABC	10.9 10.9	7.0 8.1
24	The Good Wife CBS	10.8	8.8
25	NCIS: Los Angeles CBS	10.6	8.0