The Walking Dead To The Rescue Again? Could Zombie Stock AMC Networks Come To Life With New Spinoff?

For years, one of the staples for media company AMC Networks Inc AMCX was zombie series "The Walking Dead." While the original series has come to an end, AMC Networks has several spinoffs to help keep the storylines alive.

One of those spinoffs just premiered with strong viewership.

What Happened: Shares of AMC Networks have fallen in recent weeks, which was after the media company missed earnings per share estimates in the fourth quarter.

The company recently premiered the latest "The Walking Dead" spinoff. The new series is called "The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live" and stars Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira who reprise their roles of Rick Grimes and Michonne, respectively, from the original series.

AMC recently announced the premiere episode of the spinoff, which happened on Feb. 25, was the biggest series premiere in company history in more than six years.

The series had three million viewers according to the Nielsen Live+3 ratings. The series is also the current leader for the biggest drama series premiere on cable in the 2023-2024 television season.

Potentially more important for AMC than just viewership figures was the fact the company saw its single biggest day for sign-ups in the history of AMC+, the company's direct-to-consumer platform. The first episode was the most-watched episode ever on the platform.

"What a start for ‘The Ones Who Live,' the biggest episode of television in the history of AMC+ for both viewership and customer acquisition, the top cable drama of the current TV season in key demos and our biggest AMC series premiere in six years," AMC Studios President of Entertainment Dan McDermott said.

Related Link: AMC Keeps On Raising The Dead: New ‘The Walking Dead’ Spinoff Continues Network’s Successful Franchise

Why It's Important: The sixth spinoff in The Walking Dead franchise history, the latest series was originally planned for a movie trilogy before being rewritten as a six-episode limited series.

The media company charges $8.99 per month for AMC+ subscribers, who get early access to content, ad-free viewing options and more perks.

AMC reported it had 11.4 million streaming subscribers in the fourth quarter, up 1% year-over-year and up 3% from the third quarter.

The new show could help boost this figure for the first quarter as the show continues on a weekly basis.

"The Walking Dead" ended in 2022 after 11 seasons and had around 3 million viewers per episode for its final two seasons. The new figure for the spinoff shows the potential that old fans and potentially new fans have found the spinoff series.

The peak for the franchise was the Season 5 premiere in 2014, which had 17.3 million viewers.

AMCX Price Action: Shares of AMC Networks trade at $12.67 versus a 52-week trading range of $9.96 to $23.03. Shares of the media company are down 41% over the last year and down 80% over the last five years.

Read Next: Analyst Ratings For AMC Networks

Photo: Danai Gurira and Andrew Lincoln for “The Walking Dead” via Shutterstock