One story we’ve been tracking throughout the fall is the ratings battle between The Walking Dead and the NFL.  The AMC franchise has grown to the point where it’s the only television entity able to consistently challenge the NFL on a weekly basis, especially in coveted younger demographics.

TWD is on track to end the NFL and ESPN’s 27 year winning streak as the most watched show on cable.  And perhaps even more impressive, the zombies have done it while going toe-to-toe with the top primetime program in all of television in Sunday Night Football.  In fact, The Walking Dead had a winning record against Sunday Night Football in the 18-49 demo, winning 5 out of 8 times this fall.  Season 5A drew a record average audience of 14.6 million viewers.  (NBC has been quick to counter that SNF’s average ratings are slightly better than TWD during the 9-10 PM ET hour.)

The story of how a comic book about zombies became one of the most powerful franchises in all of television, even able to topple the NFL, is fascinating.  And in a very interesting revelation, AMC has said one of the reasons for success is that it knows when to schedule against the NFL, and when not to.  In an interview with Sports Illustrated, AMC said the network consciously splits their Walking Dead season around the end of the regular season and the NFL Playoffs:

​”We don’t per se look at The Walking Dead in comparison to the NFL,” said AMC president Charlie Collier. “What we are really trying to do is create a fan experience and an event each week that moves and engages every viewer. For fans of The Walking Dead, the show is like their favorite team playing a home game on national TV every week.”

But Collier did reveal something interesting about going head to head against the NFL during an interview with Sports Illustrated last week. He said his network scheduled this year’s show with deference to the NFL’s late-season schedule and playoffs, which is why The Walking Dead ended its run on Nov. 30 and will pick up again on Feb. 8, a week after Super Bowl XLIX. Collier said network research showed that there was a lot of crossover betweenThe Walking Dead fans and NFL fans, and out of respect for those fans, the AMC show will go on hiatus during the NFL’s most important time. It also gave AMC the opportunity to build up buzz against the NFL early in its season. If the NFL is vulnerable at all as a television play, it’s prior to Thanksgiving.

The split season scheduling isn’t unique to The Walking Dead.  AMC also has done it with the final season of Breaking Bad and Mad Men, but the break in between Parts I and II were a year.  However, those popular shows aired in the spring and summer. episode first season,  from Seasons 2-5.  For the last 4 seasons, the show has aired a mid-season finale in late November or early December before returning the Sunday after the Super Bowl.

Ever since going to a full slate after the 6 episode first season, The Walking Dead has taken what amounts to a mid-season NFL break from December-January from Seasons 2-5.  For the last 4 seasons, the show has aired a mid-season finale in late November or early December before returning the Sunday after the Super Bowl.

It’s really an ingenious strategy.  Why compete against Sunday Night Football in the latter weeks of the regular season and the NFL Playoffs when you don’t have to?  With over 55 million for last year’s NFC Championship in primetime last year and over 111 million for the Super Bowl, you’d be crazy to attempt to schedule any top-shelf programming against it.  Furthermore, the strategy of creating a “mid-season finale” has added a lot of drama to the end of the first 8 episode run and created an event versus just another episode.

And for all those fans of both The Walking Dead and the NFL, it means we at least have something to look forward to on Sunday nights after the confetti drops on Super Bowl Sunday.

[Sports Illustrated]

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