Premiere of spinoff ‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’ sets records for AMC

Sunday night’s premiere of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live set all-time records for both viewership and customer acquisition on AMC+, the network announced Friday.

The show, which reunites Andrew Lincoln‘s Rick Grimes and Danai Gurira‘s Michonne, scored an audience of nearly 3 million people across the network and its sister streamer — strong enough to make it the #1 cable drama premiere of the 2023/24 television season in key viewer demographics.

What’s more, it was the biggest show debut for the network since 2018 and saw the highest number of people signing up for AMC+ since the streaming service began, AMC said.

And fans were apparently talking about it online: #TheOnesWhoLive was the #1 trending topic in the U.S. on X, formerly Twitter, according to the network.

In a joint statement, stars/executive producers Lincoln and Gurira said, “When we each began this extraordinary journey so many years ago, the most mind-meltingly beautiful moments have always been either with or about the fans.”

They hailed The Walking Dead‘s “connection between the passionate commitment of our remarkable crews and casts and the greatest fans in fandom.”

Further, they expressed, “Telling this story from behind and in front of the cameras as a team has been a dream (sometimes a fever dream) and to see the response is even better than five pizzas and a wedding ring.”

Thanking those fans “from the bottom of our blood-stained hearts,” the pair closed with, “We all did this together. Big, Epic Love.”