<em>The Walking Dead</em> season 5 premiere an instant hit

New York - The Nielsen Company says the 17.3 million people who watched the fifth season opener of The Walking Dead Sunday is a record both for the show and for a cable television programme.

Nielsen said that represented the biggest audience ever for a single non-sports programme on cable TV. The AMC drama beat its previous record audience of 16.1 million for the fourth season opener last October.

Check out a trailer for the season 5 promo trailer:



The Walking Dead also had a staggering 11 million viewers among 18-to-49-year-olds, considered most valuable to advertisers. That beats every other scripted show on TV this season, with CBS' premiere of The Big Bang Theory coming closest with 6.9 million in that demographic.

Social media has been buzzing about the season premiere of The Walking Dead and fans can't stop talking about how impressed they were.

Check out what fans on Twitter had to say:

#TheWalkingDead back with a vengeance and my goodness its brilliant!!

— Daniel Edwards (@dedwardscasting) October 14, 2014

Why 'The Walking Dead' Premiere Was One of the Best Episodes Ever http://t.co/YsNoHZ1gdj * #TheWalkingDead

— Patricia Johnson (@johnspatricc) October 14, 2014

Those numbers will only increase when time-delayed viewership is counted in. The discussion show, The Talking Dead, had 6.9 million viewers.