'Walking Dead' season 5 premiere is show's highest-rated episode ever

The Walking Dead is very much alive.

The show’s season 5 premiere marked the series’ highest-rated episode ever with 17.3 million viewers, up 7 percent from the previous record-holder, the season 4 premiere. The show was also up 6 percent in adults aged 18-49 with 11 million viewers.

Speaking of the season 4 premiere, it now comes in second place for the show with 16.1 million total viewers and 10.4 million viewers 18-49. It was after seven days of DVR playback that the season 4 premiere became the most highly-rated episode in cable television history, something we’ll have to wait and see if the season 5 premiere can top.

Talking Dead, the live aftershow, also set a record last night with a series high of 6.9 million viewers and 4.5 million viewers 18-49, both increasing more than 30 percent from last year’s premiere.

And if that weren’t enough, the show’s season 5 premiere was the series’ most talked-about episode ever with more than 1.32 million tweets. The Walking Dead is also one of the only shows in Twitter history to take up all 10 trending topics in the U.S. at once.

Considering AMC has already announced a sixth season for the show, perhaps this is only the beginning.