‘The Walking Dead,’ ‘Duck Dynasty’ Are This Year’s Top Cable Shows

The Walking Dead and Duck Dynasty were the top shows on cable in 2013.

In regards to overall viewers, no other original series on cable came close to taking down the adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comic book series. According to the folks at Deadline, the zombie-oriented series averaged 16.16 million viewers over the course of the year.

The Walking Dead wasn’t the only popular choice with viewers this year. Cable network A&E scored a huge hit with the reality series Duck Dynasty, pulling in an average of 13.37 million viewers. These shows were reportedly followed closely by History’s The Bible; the miniseries had an average of 13.2 million viewers.

Entertainment Weekly reports that The Walking Dead mid-season finale proved much more popular than last year’s finale. Nearly 12.1 million viewers tuned in to see what happened to Rick, the Governor, and their respective followers. The ratings were up nearly 15 percent from last’s season’s endeavor, suggesting that the show hasn’t peaked at the moment.

To keep the buzz going about The Walking Dead and the final episodes of the fourth season, the boys and girls at AMC cooked up a nifty 30-second trailer for the show’s February return. If you’re curious to see some of the stuff our heroes face next year, then schedule some time to take a look at the short clip embedded below.

The Inquisitr previously reported that star Andrew Lincoln warned viewers that they haven’t seen the most harrowing episodes just yet. Although a lot of stuff went down in the mid-season finale, apparently there’s still quite a bit of nastiness lurking around the corner.

“I will stress this as well. You haven’t even seen the half of it yet. The back eight is more radical than ever before. It’s almost a tale of two seasons. It really is that radical, the difference between the first eight and the back eight,” he recently told Yahoo.

Lincoln continued, “And really, trust me, I think that three of the strongest episodes we’ve done this season are yet to come. Probably four. There are two episodes that I absolutely adore in the back eight, one of which I think is going to be the most controversial episode that we’ve probably ever been involved in, and that’s saying something.”

Check out the teaser for The Walking Dead below. New episodes return February 9.

Are you surprised that AMC’s The Walking Dead and A&E’s Duck Dynasty were among the most popular shows on cable this year?