ASIA-PACIFIC – November 5, 2013 – Zombies were all over the news, literally, as the Fox Sports Asia newsroom turned into an outbreak zone to promote season four of the hugely popular zombie apocalypse drama, The Walking Dead.
To promote the series’ new season in Southeast Asia, the Fox Sports Central Asia newscast featured zombies all over the floor as the anchors reported the news like nothing was wrong. Later on, the anchors become zombies themselves–but that doesn’t stop them from delivering the headlines.
The zombie outbreak also took over Japan, with the Undead invading a baseball game and storming Tokyo Tower.
Even Taiwan was not spared from the outbreak, with walkers hijacking a bus a driving to famous tourist locations in promotion of the series’ new season.
The show’s fourth season premiered in Asia last October 20, cumulatively reaching 83 percent more viewers than season three’s premiere across six countries – Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Korea and Australia.
The dead will continue to walk in the region as FOX International Channels (FIC) announced that they are picking up the fifth season of The Walking Dead for its territories across Asia-Pacific. This follows AMC Network’s recent announcement that they have renewed the zombie apocalypse drama for a further season in the United States.
In the US, the return of the fourth season smashed all of its previous records, with the first episode boasting an audience of 16.1 million, 10.4 million of which were in the 18-49 age bracket, a series high and an all new record for cable television.
Joon Lee, executive vice president of content and communications, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East at FOX International Channels said, “We are very happy that we will be able to welcome the fifth season of The Walking Dead back to FIC. It has grown from a television series into a global pop culture phenomenon and it is very exciting for us to have been a part of that growth in introducing the zombie fever to Asia.”
The Walking Dead season five will return in 2014 on FIC’s channel platforms across Asia-Pacific, with Scott Gimple as the series’ showrunner and Robert Kirkman, creator of the original comic on which it is based, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert, Greg Nicotero and Tom Luse as executive producers.
