At the time of last summer’s Comic-Con, the impending debut of The Walking Dead was highly anticipated, but few thought it would be anything more than a genre curiosity. A year later, however, the series is entrenched as the biggest ratings hit AMC has ever had, and news announced on Friday could boost its numbers even more in the coming season.

The premiere date for Season 2 was announced during the panel for The Walking Dead at Comic-Con on Friday: Sunday, October 16. That puts the premiere in the midst of Fear Fest, the Halloween-themed block of films and specials that has been a favorite of AMC viewers (under various names) for many years. But what’s changed is the time slot for the series, as it has been moved to 9 p.m. Eastern time. Except for those times when AMC has doubled up on series on Sunday nights (such as last summer when both Mad Men and Rubicon were running back-to-back), the channel has typically aired its signature dramas at 10. The move to the earlier time slot should be good for ratings, though it will place The Walking Dead into direct competition with one of the most popular shows on pay cable, Showtime’s Dexter.

Also unknown at the present time is exactly how the season will be broken up. A premiere on October 16 will allow only 10 of the projected 13 episodes to be aired prior to Christmas and New Year’s Day, which occur on Sunday this year. As it is not likely AMC will air original programming on those nights, the channel might be inclined to break The Walking Dead Season 2 into two halves, which has never been the practice on AMC but is often done elsewhere on basic cable.

Tags: AMC, the walking dead, the walking dead season 2