"The Walking Dead" got killer ratings over the weekend with its Season 5 premiere.
According to AMC, 17.3 million total viewers tuned in, with 11 million of them in the advertiser-favorite 18-49 demo, making it the highest-rated episode in the show's history.
When the final tallies are in (including DVR), the network expects the premiere to have reached more than 22 million people.
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"It was the hardest nine days of my life," Executive Producer Greg Nicotero previously told Access Hollywood of directing the Season 5 premiere.
In the coming weeks, Greg promised even more gruesome walkers.
PHOTOS: 'The Walking Dead' Season 5 Premiere
"There's a great episode coming up soon where they go into a flooded basement and so it's like right out – just imagine like rotisserie chicken for like two years," he said.
When Access asked the EP on the show's premiere red carpet if Terminan Gareth (who appeared to have been shot in the shoulder by Rick in the Season 5 opener) will return, Greg said he would (Gareth is also featured in a trailer for the series).
"Yeah. He was somebody that we established at the end of last season, and, you know, the great thing about the first episode is we get a little backstory of Terminus and we get a sense of what happened there and how those people became who they are and it's a recurring theme in the show: Good people that are pushed to the limit and are forced to do bad things to survive. Our group is the same way. They have been pushed to do bad things. They have killed people, but they did it because that's what they needed to do to survive."
And Beth Greene (Emily Kinney) will be back too, but Greg played coy on what to expect.
"She had a cast on her arm, so that's as much as I can say," he told Access.
"The Walking Dead" continues Sunday nights at 9 PM ET/PT on AMC.
-- Jolie Lash
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