KILLER INSTINCT
TO ANY OUTSIDER setting foot on the Griffin, Georgia, set of The Walking Dead, the sense of heightened security and secrecy is immediately apparent. Production assistants string giant tarps across the entrance to a small alley, shielding any on-camera action from the eyes of dozens of gawkers who have parked themselves across the street in the 90-degree heat holding homemade signs professing their love for AMC’s hit zombie drama. (“I ♥ Daryl Dixon” is one popular sentiment.) Brief glimpses of the show’s stars elicit the kind of eardrum-tearing screams usually reserved for the latest boy band.
It’s a scene that perfectly illustrates the growing influence of , which burst onto TV in 2010 with 5.3 million total viewers (the network’s highest-rated premiere at the time) and, last March, for the Season 4 finale, drew 15.7 million total viewers and a staggering 8.0 rating in the 18–49 age bracket, making it the No. 1 show on television in the all-important advertiser demo. In addition to a successful aftershow, has even spawned a companion series featuring a different setting and characters, expected to debut in
