Pen Beat

Pen Beat By Shane Bang

The Walking Dead’ Ratings: Season 5 Debut Shatters Cable Records As 17.3M Watch

With a lot of red meat and explosions galore, the zombie apocalypse returned to AMClast night bigger than ever. The Season 5 debut of The Walking Dead pulled in 17.3 million total viewers on Sunday at 9 PM with 11 million among adults 18-49. With a rise of 7% and 6%, respectively, that viewership and demo series record chews up the previous high of 16.1 million watching and 10.4 million among the 18-49s that the Season 4 premiere of the blockbuster series drew on October 13 last year. (Watch the first four minutes of last night’s episode here.)

As it stands right now, the hourlong S5 opener “No Sanctuary,” directed by EP Greg Nicotero, has scored a touchdown over the NFL, Fox’s football overrun and NBC’sSunday Night Football among the key demo to win primetime in both broadcast and cable. That could change in the final numbers, as it did with last season’s debut, which 

eventually saw a slim SNF win after what initially looked like a WD victory. However, the Philadelphia Eagles crushing 27-0 win over the NY Giants last night and the ensuing ratings fall from last week and last year makes it a hard one for the usually unbeatable NFL and SNF to turn around this time. Last season, The Walking Dead not only proved the most successful nonsports show on TV among the 18-49s but actually beat the NFL twice and the Winter Olympics three weeks in a row.

Woman Caught on Camera Pulling Baltimore Rioter Off of Streets Called ‘Mom of the Year’

Police have called on help from the media after seven officers were injured in Baltimore on Monday in riots following the death of Freddie Gray.

But some residents aren’t having it with the protestors, including a woman who is featured in four Instagram videos as she’s removing from the trouble a young man dressed in all black.

Here’s the first video, where she confronts him. (Editor’s note: Strong language and violence):

https://instagram.com/p/1_jHvQJfGC/

Another angle:

Then there’s this:

Finally:

The first video inspired a Twitter user to comment that the woman was the “Mom of the year”.

The demonstrations, riots and other fallout after the death of resident Freddie Gray has inspired a hashtag called #PrayForBaltimore.

Michael Jordan is now officially a billionaire, according to Forbes

Somebody prep LeBron James' Mirror of Somber Introspection — as it turns out, he won't accomplish his long-since-established goal ofbecoming the first billionaire athlete. He's been beaten to the top of that particular mountain of cash by — who else? — Michael Jordan.

[Follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]

Forbes estimated back in June that Jordan, 52, had joined the ranks of the billionaires after increasing his stake in the Charlotte Hornets — the franchise in which he purchased a majority interest for $275 million in March of 2010, back when they were the Bobcats — from 80 percent to 89.5 percent. On Monday, the magazine confirmed Jordan's status as one of the world's 290 new billionaires, which sure must represent a nice cherry on top of the Hornets' 98-83 Sunday win over the Orlando Magic for Charlotte's Hall of Fame boss. From Forbes' Dan Alexander:

The most famous rookie on the billionaires list? Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player of all time and indisputably the best-paid athlete of all time. Most of his cash comes from Nike payouts on his iconic brand. The Jordan brand grossed an estimated $2.25 billion in 2013, earning his Airness some $90 million. But his most valuable asset is his stake in the Charlotte Hornets, worth more than $500 million. When ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers for a stunning $2 billion,values of all NBA teams skyrocketed, creating three new billionaires. Jordan’s old boss Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago Bulls, joined the list with a fortune of $1.3 billion, and Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander boosted his net worth to $1.6 billion.

As a matter of fact, as ProBasketballTalk's Dan Feldman notes, a whopping 18 NBA owners — a majority of the 30-team league — pop up on Forbes' list — 19 if you include James L. Dolan of theNew York Knicks, whose individual net worth falls shy of 10 figures, but whose family fortuneexceeds $4 billion.

That seems like the sort of thing that National Basketball Player's Association Executive Director Michele Roberts might file away for future discussions with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver about how one-third of NBA teams are still losing money ... especially considering these net-worth evaluations come before the owners' coffers get reloaded with their share of the league's new $24 billion media rights deal. Saying the nay-no to cap smoothing, one would suspect, is just the tip of the iceberg when those negotiations open up.

But let us not sully this lovely moment by considering impending labor doom. Let us instead congratulate Michael Jordan on becoming the 513th richest person in America, and let us allow our minds to wander as we contemplate Michael Jordan's reaction to learning he ranks 513th in anything, even if the category is "being obscenely rich." (Basically, watch your backs, other billionaires.)