DESPITE OSCARS, THERE’S A LOT OF LIFE IN WALKING DEAD

Not even the Oscars could put a serious dent in the ratings for AMC’s The Walking Dead. While the Academy Awards telecast produced its best ratings in three years — with 40.4 million viewers tuning in — the zombie series managed to attract more than 11 million viewers — about even with the previous week. Moreover, it remained the most-watched scripted program for the week among the 18-49 age group, the demographic targeted by most advertisers, coming out ahead of every scripted program on broadcast TV. AMC said on Tuesday that largely as a result of the show’s popularity, its ad revenue increased 16 percent to $157 million in the fourth quarter. In an interview with today’s (Wednesday) Wall Street Journal, Brad Adgate, head researcher at Horizon Media, said, “We’re starting to see that cable has caught up to broadcast and even surpassed it. … It could be an anomaly, but they [AMC] did it. Time will tell if it’s sustainable.”