AMC’s The Walking Dead debuted its fifth season on Sunday night, and set a new record for viewership, with 17.3 million viewers watching the premiere, according to Variety.  That number bests the 16.1 million viewers for the Season Four premiere (see "No Stopping 'The Walking Dead'"), with an increase of over 1.2 million viewers.
 
Walking Dead continues to dominate in demo, with an 8.7 rating in 18-49 for the Sunday premiere (11 million in that age range), besting NBC’s Sunday Night Football game between the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles, which garnered a 6.7 in that range.  The AMC show is now posting numbers that complete with broadcast network premieres, including CBS’s Big Bang Theory, NCIS, and NCIS: New Orleans, which all posted numbers within a million viewers of TWD’s in “live plus same-day’ results.
 
This is a return to undisputedly positive momentum for the show, which saw the ratings for last season’s March finale fall below those of the season’s premiere for the first time.  The Season 4 finale drew 15.7 million viewers, a record for a finale (see "'The Walking Dead' Round-Up"), but below the viewership of the first episode of the season. 
 
AMC projects that when the full week’s time-shifting views are counted, The Walking Dead premiere could hit 22 million viewers. 
 
The Walking Dead was renewed for a sixth season ahead of the premiere (see "'The Walking Dead' Renewed for Sixth Season").