Zombies Be Taking Over

If you havent heard by now than you are probably not one of the 11 million people who watched the second season premiere of AMC”s breakout hit, The Walking Dead. I’m watching it as I write this so I have no thoughts on the premiere but I’ve heard such mixed things I don’t know what to think just yet.

AMC has no trouble with viewers but is not a channel that gets CBS type numbers. AMC hosts shows like Breaking Bad and my favorite Mad Men, but it’s not the network for the common folk. It’s shows all hover around the standard cable viewership, 2-3 million but Dead EXPLODED last year when it premiered on Halloween to about 5 million viewers, which is huge for AMC. The second season premiere set record ratings for the network, seeing 7.3 million initial viewers, then 11 million in total (counting the repeat that followed) and it also scored the very coveted 18-49 demo. MASSIVE. And this doesn’t even take in DVR viewership yet which will probably boost it.

Let’s talk about DVR viewership for a quick second: ratings are so up and down these days but I just read the viewership for the second week of the new TV season and did you know Modern Family gets about 17.5 million viewers with DVR viewership included? Insane. NCIS is around 23 million, which, don’t even get me started BECAUSE.I’VE.YET.TO.KNOW.ANYONE.WHO.ACTUALLY.WATCHES.THIS.GOD.DAMN.SHOW. Anyways, everything gets such a huge boost. Ratings have been sagging but we always forget that no one watches TV the way they used to anymore. I mean, unless I’m home to watch my shows I have to watch them all online. I am looking into a DVR, trust me, because I don’t do this shitty quality. I only watch my Monday night and Thursday night shows at home, regularly. I just love watching Parks & Recreation in the moment. But there are certain shows I like to save as a treat for the weekend. It’s just very interesting how our viewership has changed.

Next on the Zombie menu, 2009′s hit film, Zombieland is being picked up by Fox and being turned into a TV show. Now before yell at me listen to the details because this is actually pretty cool: the original Zombieland script was infact made for TV. It was given to CBS but they passed. SYFY didn’t have the funding. So it sat around from 2005 until it got made and became the breakout success it is. The intention was a TV show and it’s very evident in the film with stuff like “Zombie Kill Of The Week” (which will be present in the series) and the very open ending. It’s obvious the main actors will not join the show as Emma Stone and Jesse Eisenberg’s careers could not be hotter. I just watched it again last night and man, do I love this movie. So fresh, inventive and just effortless. And at the end of the day, it’s so much f-cking fun. I’d love a sequel but I’ll take this too, especially if the writers of the movie are on board like reported.

Why the studio never got around to a sequel is beyond me. I actually really don’t understand. “Hey guys, wanna remake the remake of The Thing but it’ll actually be a prequel and have no stars? OMFG GENIUS MR. GOLDBERG! But wait! What about Zombieland 2? NO TIME FOR THAT NONSENSE!”. The box office was strong, DVD sales were strong, has a big following and Emma Stone and Jesse Eisenberg are huge names now but yet… no sequel. Hollywood is so f-cking weird sometimes.