AMC's brand-new zombie drama series "Fear the Walking Dead' smashed cable series premiere ratings records by raking in an impressive 10.1 million viewers, triumphing over "Better Call Saul,' which appealed to 6.9 million viewers in its February debut.
Although the new show has proven a promising beginning, its parent series, "The Walking Dead,' still boasts a considerably large number of viewers when it drew a whopping 17.3 million during its season five premiere.
AMC provided an official statement about the success of its promising zombie drama series, with network President Charlie Collier saying, "'Fear the Walking Dead' delivered record-breaking numbers that are all the more special in this era of time-shifted viewing and audience fragmentation. To have a companion series to the No. 1 show o n television driving communal, urgent viewing, social activity and pop cultural relevance of this magnitude is truly differentiating."
Set in the same exact universe as "The Walking Dead' and written once again by Robert Kirkman and Dave Erickson, the companion series looks into the beginning of the zombie apocalypse and the events that followed.
With its setting in Los Angeles, the "Fear the Walking Dead' premiere had put forward the blended family of Madison Clark (Kim Dickens), Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis), Nick (Frank Dilane) and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) as they experience the outbreak of the "walking dead' virus.
The supersized premiere episode first showed a scene in which Nick, who passed out in an abandoned church, woke up and began looking for his female friend, Gloria. When he found her, however, Nick saw his friend clearly infected with the zombie virus and was bending over a bloody body.
Nick hysterically ran from the scene and met an oncoming vehicle, which accidentally lurched into him. The druggie woke up in the hospital and began questioning what he saw in the church, trying to describe the scene to his stepfather Travis.
In turn, Travis himself went to the building to investigate about Nick's seemingly impossible tale, seeing the blood and the remains.
After being cooped up in the hospital with no answers, Nick escaped while his mother, Madison, also paid a visit to the church as she hoped to find her son. Finding the building empty, Madison chanced upon her Nick's drug paraphernalia and other belongings, coming to realize that he son was in trouble.
The next day, a police footage of a presumed dead victim, who was actually an undead human, went viral; while many assumed it was a hoax, panic still rose over the city.
Nick met up with his dealer Calvin as he questioned whether the drugs sold to him had been laced. After getting into a brawl, Nick ended up killing Calvin. Travis and Madison found Nick, as he took them to see Calvin's body, which had already disappeared.
The drug dealer had already turned into a walker, and he came reeling towards the three, which became their first encounter with the undead, right in the flesh.
"Fear the Walking Dead' airs every Sunday on AMC. The opening scene for the premiere episode can be viewed below.
