The new season of AMC's The Walking Dead had got off to a bit of a slow start in terms of ratings, but this week's much-discussed episode put the hit zombie drama back on track.

　　Variety are reporting that season six's third episode rose by 8% on the previous episode, drawing a total of 13.1 million viewers. While this is less than the equivalent episode in last season (13.8 million), it is still an impressive mid-season figure for a cable show.

　　However, the real success story this week was the recap show Talking Dead. Because of the controversial fate of one of the series' main characters, more viewers tuned into the subsequent discussion than for any previous Talking Dead that wasn't following a premiere or finale, with a total of 6.2 million viewers.

　　In an spoiler-filled interview with Variety, Walking Dead producer David Alpert spoke about the fans' reaction to Sunday's shocking episode. "I'm not the most beloved person when I'm walking out right now," he admitted. "But in a weird way, when people tell me they hate me for what happened last night, I take it as a compliment because it shows that they care. I made a lot of other things that nobody talks to me about at all, so it's nice when somebody cares.

　　"We think that giving everybody what they want all the time isn't the way to actually give them what they want. You watch The Walking Dead because people you love die. Whether you admit it, that is part of the reason you watch the show, so if we stopped killing characters you loved, you wouldn't like the show anymore."