KILLER INSTINCT

As The Walking Dead returns for a fifth season, stars Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus talk about teaming up to lead in a world gone mad

- ROB MOYNIHAN

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 love 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 The Walking Dead, 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, The Walking Dead has even spawned a companion series featuring a different setting and characters, expected to debut in 2015.

More ratings records will likely be shattered when