AMC’s Mad Men and Breaking Bad will always be remembered as cornerstones of Television’s Great New Age Characterized by the Shiny Mineral of Your Choice, but The Walking Dead, like it or not, is going to be remembered as the cable series that delivered the hardest punch to network TV. The Hollywood Reporter writes that 16.1 million viewers tuned in for Sunday night’s Season 4 premiere on AMC, setting a new record and earning an 8.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic, “making it bigger than any broadcast series this fall and even stronger than last night’s competition from Sunday Night Football.” These zombies have been TV’s top scripted draw for a full year now, with TWD’s Season 3 premiere pulling 12.4 million viewers. It’s a merry time to be AMC, with BrBa’s finale setting a series record just a couple weeks ago.
- Banksy sold some art in Central Park for $60 apiece; the browsers (and select few buyers) had no idea the selections were worth infinitely more than that.
- Susan Sarandon and Eva Amurri are doing an NBC comedy together.
- Dueling movie stars Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock played a Big-style floor piano on The Jonathan Ross Show. And Sandy spat some “Rapper’s Delight” bars.
- Subway-riding Jay Z strikes back, taking Chris Martin and Timbaland with him on the Tube before a gig in London.
- Patton Oswalt has a great routine about an all-time gluttonous meal, and some dude made it for his friend’s bachelor party. He even made the steak slab served in a deep-fried pumpkin.
- No new Frank Ocean until next summer. BOOOOOOO.
- Someone give Rihanna’s Twitter feed a detective series.
- Sufjan Stevens, grammarian, wrote an open letter to Miley Cyrus.
- Anthony Hopkins binge-watched Breaking Bad and wrote Bryan Cranston a letter about how much he loved it. Contains the phrase “Your performance as Walter White was the best acting I have seen — ever.”
- Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline are aggressively not into the whole concept of “directors.”
- Jurassic World is bringing kids back to the series, starting with the one from Iron Man 3.
- And check out the sprawling Avatar attraction coming to Disney World in 2017.