In a collision of cable heavyweights on Sunday night three top dramas came away with audience numbers worth trumpeting.

The two biggest draws of the night were, as expected, the finales of “The Walking Dead” on AMC and “The Bible” on History. But HBO made noise as well with the season premiere of “Game of Thrones,” which set an audience high of 4.4 million viewers for that series.

“Dead” also reached a high, with 12.4 million viewers, while “The Bible” at 11.7 million, was slightly below its premiere number, possibly because of the competition, though it may be hard to imagine much crossover viewing among fans of zombies, dragons and apostles.

For the night “The Walking Dead” had the largest overall audience, with viewership that slightly surpassed this season’s premiere total of 12.3 million. The show was broadcast from 9 to 10:05 p.m. in the East, and the extra five minutes are relevant, at least to the History channel, which noted that the two-hour finale of “The Bible” managed to eke ahead of the zombies for the hour from 9 to 10, 12.33 million viewers to 12.29 for “Dead.” (Apparently the audience peaked enough in those last five minutes to lift the average for “Dead” to 12.4 million.)

The finale capped a season in which “The Walking Dead” had become a ratings sensation, regularly finishing as the top show in television in the 18-to-49 age demographic coveted by advertisers.

Over all “The Bible” averaged 11.7 million viewers for its two-hour episode, which centered on the death and resurrection of Jesus. That fell short of the show’s premiere, which drew 13.1 million viewers.

As might be expected the audience for “The Walking Dead” was much younger. It easily topped “The Bible” in the category of viewers between the ages of 18 and 49, with 8.1 million viewers in that age group, to 3.6 million. “Game of Thrones” also performed spectacularly in that age group, which accounted for 3 million of its 4.4 million total.

But by any standard the audience levels were huge for all three cable dramas. The most-watched show on broadcast television on Sunday was the hour on CBS that “60 Minutes” and “The Amazing Race” shared (because of run-over from basketball), with 10.5 million viewers. The 4.4 million total for “Game of Thrones” is also impressive because the show was available in only about a third of television homes; multiply it by about three, and it would be at about the same level as “The Walking Dead.”

All these numbers were strictly for Sunday night; delayed-viewing numbers will drive up the totals.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/business/media/zombies-apostles-and-dragons-cable-tvs-big-ratings-night.html?partner=rss&emc=rss