AMC’s The Walking Dead is an incredibly popular show.  Last night’s midseason premiere (read Dave’s recap here) scored a staggering 12.3 million viewers, which is the series’ largest audience to date.  The episode also proved strong in the coveted 18-49 demo, garnering 7.7 million viewers with the key demographic.  In fact, the series average for the 18-49 demo is higher than those of network hits like Modern Family, NCIS, and even The Big Bang Theory. The show’s previous ratings record was the season three premiere which scored 10.9 million viewers, but the numbers just continue to climb.  When taking into account the encore broadcasts of the episode, a total of 16.6 million people watched The Walking Dead last night.

The ratings feat of last night’s episode is even more impressive when you take into account the fact that the show was airing opposite the 2013 Grammy Awards, which are an annual ratings draw.  Despite AMC’s apparent revolving door approach to TWD showrunners, it’s safe to assume that the show will be on the air for a very, very long time should these kinds of numbers continue.

If you’re a toy collector, you’ve likely had a great past few days.  That’s because every February at Toy Fair in NYC, all the toy manufactures  show off tons of upcoming toys and many are being revealed for the first time.  Over the past 24 hours we’ve posted a ton of them broken down by manufacturer, and we’re not close to being done.  However, due to how many we’ve yet to post, I’m going to take a group approach to this article.

As you can see after the jump, we’ve got over 100 pictures from the convention floor and you can check out some of the new toys for Iron Man (and Iron Man 3), The Walking Dead, Batman, The Dark Knight, Star Wars, DC Justice, Real Steel, Marvel Selects, Resident Evil, Arkham City, Star Trek, Superman, Thor, Wonder Woman, Tom Cruise from Mission Impossible, and much more.

While some people like heavy articulation on their action figures, others just want something cool to sit on a desk.  Enter McFarlane Toys.  While they’re essentially just small statues, they have great attention to detail, and they always look cool wherever you display them.  At this year’s Toy Fair, McFarlane showed off some new toys for The Walking Dead, Spawn, and Assassin’s Creed.  Hit the jump to check them out.

Every year at Comic-Con, I always see a huge line at the Funko/Pop! booth for their newest 4″ vinyl figures.  While I’m not as familiar with vinyl toys as I am action figures, I do know a lot of people collect them and they make a lot of convention exclusives.  Over the past few years, they’ve produced over 300 different characters ranging from Disney to Darth Vader.

At this year’s Toy Fair, Funko/Pop! showed off some of their upcoming figures as well as some Wacky Wobblers for Iron Man 3, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, DC and Marvel superheros, Ace Ventura, Star Wars, Planet of the Apes, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to check them out.

AMC’s The Walking Dead came back fighting tonight with an opening that pit brother against brother in a gladiatorial battle of the Dixons.  It looks like fans finally got an answer to the question of what would happen when Merle and Daryl were reunited and it was anything but what I expected.  Things are starting to unravel in Woodbury as well as back at the prison, but it wasn’t all dreary: tonight’s episode even featured a quick undead cameo from former Super Bowl MVP Hines Ward!

Starring Andrew Lincoln, David Morrissey, Chandler Riggs, Melissa McBride, Laurie Holden, Danai Gurira, Michael Rooker, Norman Reedus, Steven Yeun, Lauren Cohan, Scott Wilson, Dallas Roberts, Emily Kinney, Chad Coleman and Lew Temple, AMC’s The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights at 9.  Hit the jump for my review of “The Suicide King.”

With AMC’s extremely popular The Walking Dead returning with new episodes tonight, I recently landed an exclusive interview with executive producer Gale Anne Hurd.  She talked about what it’s been like watching the show become a worldwide phenomenon, pressure from the fans, having a bigger budget for season 3, the status of season 4, deleted scenes, and a lot more.  In addition , we talked about Tremors (which she produced), the success of comic book movies, and I got updates on Gaiking and her USA Network pilot called Horizon.  She says it’s “set in the 1940’s and it’s about a woman whose husband disappears in the Pacific and she begins to wonder if it has something to do with an alien spaceship.”  Hit the jump for more.

With The Walking Dead returning for the remainder of its third season, the Academy of Television hosted an evening to celebrate the cast and creative team, and the huge success of the popular drama series, while giving a glimpse into what fans can expect as the story continues.  Collider was there to cover and attend the event, and we’ve compiled the highlights of what the cast had to say during the Q&A.

During the discussion, the actors talked about how difficult it is to constantly lose actors on the show, how comfort is the most dangerous thing for these people in this world, that the humans in this world are scarier than the zombies, their favorite moments this season, which character they would love to resurrect from the dead, whether Rick (Andrew Lincoln) will have another breakdown, Andrea’s (Laurie Holden) bad choices in men, what Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Glenn (Steven Yeun) might do without each other, what might develop between Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride), the Governor’s (David Morrissey) state of mind now, where Michonne’s (Danai Gurira) loyalty lies, and what they’re looking forward to in the remaining episodes this season.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

AMC’s The Walking Dead will return for the second half of its third season this Sunday, February 10th at 9PM ET.  If you can’t wait that long, we have a few new images from the second half of the season and a sneak peek at the upcoming episode.  At the end of the mid-season finale, the conflict between Rick’s group and the Governor’s followers came to a head, while Daryl and Merle were reunited in a most unfortunate way.  It’s safe to say that not everyone will survive this season, but just who gets left behind remains to be seen.

Hit the jump to watch the sneak peek of the upcoming episode “The Suicide King” along with some new images. 

Although we just posted a promo for AMC’s The Walking Dead a couple of days ago, the official trailer for the season three return is now available.  It features a lot more footage from the upcoming episodes and will center on the war between Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) group and the followers of the Governor (David Morrissey).  AMC’s The Walking Dead returns starting Sunday, February 10th at 9/8c.  Hit the jump to watch the new trailer.

A new trailer for season 3.5 of AMC’s The Walking Dead is now online.  At only about one minute in length, it does a great job at recapping the first half of the third season while giving juicy teasers for the concluding run.  Big news in the off-season for the zombie apocalypse adaptation came when showrunner Glen Mazzara left unexpectedly and was replaced by Scott Gimple.  Time will tell if that changing of the guard will have any obvious impacts on the show going forward to season four.

Be sure to catch up with our previous episode recaps of season three of The Walking Dead and tune in Sunday nights on AMC when the new episodes return starting February 10th.  Hit the jump to watch the new trailer. 

Third time’s the charm?  Following the shocking news that Glen Mazzara would be stepping down as showrunner on AMC’s hit drama series The Walking Dead, TV Line now reports that supervising producer Scott Gimple has been tapped as the replacement.  Gimple will mark the third showrunner on the 3-season-old series, as original creator/showrunner Frank Darabont was forced out halfway through the show’s second season.  Hit the jump for more details.

The Paley Center for Media has released the list of this year’s attendees and honorees for the the 30th annual PaleyFest.  The TV fan festival will take place at the Saban Theater at the beginning of March, and will feature newcomer The Walking Dead, which will be part of the opening night presentation.  That series will join a lineup that includes Community, Parenthood, The Mindy Project, Arrow, The Big Bang Theory, Revolution, Once Upon a Time and more.  American Horror Story: Asylum will close the festival on March 15th.

Ryan Murphy, creator of American Horror Story, Glee and Nip/Tuck will also be honored with the first PaleyFest Icon Award for creative achievement in television.  For the complete schedule and lineup for their biggest festival yet, hit the jump.  

The second half of the current third season of AMC’s ratings-smashing drama series The Walking Dead kicks off in a few short weeks, and the network has released a new poster that teases what’s to come.  If you’ll remember, the midseason finale left David Morrissey’s nefarious The Governor in a rather dark place, and this poster hints at an epic face off between the villainous character and Andrew Lincoln’s Rick.  This season has by far been the most entertaining of the series, and while AMC recently ordered an upcoming fourth season of the drama, showrunner Glen Mazzara (who was responsible for the season three upswing) is unfortunately leaving the series over a “difference of opinion” on how to proceed going forward.

Hit the jump to check out the new poster.  Season three of The Walking Dead continues on February 10th.

Yesterday, AMC rang in the New Year with the dead.  During a marathon of season three episodes from The Walking Dead, the network showed a preview of what the remainder of the season holds for fans.  I stopped watching the show after season one, which means I can’t spoil what’s in this preview.  Everybody wins.

Hit the jump to check out the preview.  The Walking Dead returns February 10th. [Updated: We've been informed that the previous video wasn't the newest preview.  We've updated the story with the latest video]

No plans for ringing in the New Year?  Well, AMC is running a marathon of the first half of The Walking Dead’s third season which will take you into the New Year and beyond.  If you’ve missed out on one of 2012′s best shows on TV, now’s your chance to get caught up.  If you’re really behind on TWD, AMC will air black and white episodes from seasons one and two starting this February.  Just remember that the neighbors you see stumbling around tomorrow morning are not necessarily the infected undead and are more than likely hungover.

AMC’s New Year’s Eve marathon of the first half of season three of The Walking Dead starts tonight at 9PM/8c and will air all eight episodes right on through into the wee hours of the morn.  Check out the full schedule here.