The Walking Dead returned for its sixth season on October 10th, and America is excited for what is to come. From dealing with cannibals, to corrupt post-apocalypse cops, the characters of this show have, nonetheless, kept on keeping on.

For those who have never watched the show, The Walking Dead follows Rick Grimes, a former cop who is awoken from a 6-week coma and quickly begins to realize that the world is no longer the same, and now the dead walk among the living. And since the pilot episode, we’ve been introduced to many characters we’ve come to love (and hate), some having come and gone, and given an idea as to how a zombie apocalypse may turn out for mankind. Also, no one says the word ‘zombie’, and instead, there are a hundred other words used to describe the dead, including eaters

The series, over time, gained popularity both domestically and internationally. It is one of the most viewed TV shows on right now; this year, the show is the fourth most watched TV show, trailing not too far behind shows such as Big Bang Theory and Sunday Night Football.

The show’s season five premiere shattered the ratings record with 17.3 million people watching the show, which left many to wonder as to whether they can go further than this. Their season six premiere did not fare as well. However, the ratings were still high in comparison with other shows on Sunday night primetime, and with the MLB Playoffs and the start of the NFL season, it’s understandable that the show would experience such a slight dip in ratings.

The season six premiere enticed viewers with the most amount of ‘walkers’ that the show’s viewers — and the characters — had ever seen before, leaving the viewers at the edge of their seat for the majority of the duration. And on top of that, the safe-haven community known as Alexandria had to deal with the newly-introduced Wolves, a cultish group of survivors who kill those not a part of their pack.

The direction the show is going in is certainly an interesting one, and what creator Robert Kirkman decides to do with the show will be interesting to see.