"The Walking Dead" is still walking tall. The show's ratings remained solid in its second week back on the air, Deadline reported. 15.143 million total viewers and 9.796 million adults in the 18-49 demo, making the latest installment of AMC's zombie drama the third most watched episode in the show's history. Last week's debut and the season 4 premiere hold the top two spots.

The show made history last week when its premiere drew 17.3 million viewers -- 11 million in the coveted 18-49 demographic -- and beat "Sunday Night Football" by 2.5 million viewers.

Last night's episode, penned by creator Robert Kirkman, succeeded even as the Denver Broncos' Peyton Manning threw his 509th touchdown pass over on the competing "Sunday Night Football," thus setting the NFL's TD record. The show did experience a 12% dip in total viewers, mirroring what happened for the second episode of the previous season.

Even with the drop, the "Strangers" episode of "The Walking Dead" still scored a 7.7 rating in the key demo, winning the night and beating out "SNF's" 7.0 fast nationals rating.

"The Walking Dead" airs Sundays on AMC.