The television body count is on the way up, says the second edition of a Funeralwise.com survey of 40 programs during Fall 2012 which found an increase over the Fall 2011. Guns were the most frequent cause of death, but the most frequent victims were already dead, sort of: we’re talking zombies.
Gunshots claimed 44% of the total number of victims, and they were predominately male – 86% in fact. Men made up over half of the gunshot victims, with beatings and strangulations more prominent causes of death among females.
AMC’s The Walking Dead was the body count leader with 38 per episode, with better than nine out of ten coming from the zombie population. Cinemax’s Strike Back was #2 with 26 deaths per episode.
The overall average was 4.7 dead bodies for episode, but it the top three are taken out of the equation, the average for the other 37 programs was but three. Nonetheless, the 4.7 total represents a 12% increase year over year.
Funeralwise is an online funeral planning service, and it produced on statistic or particular interest along the lines of its primary business function: It said that out of all the bodies it counted during the Fall 2012 survey, only 11 of them received a funeral.
“We expected to find a fair number of dead bodies on TV, but having completed 2 studies we are surprised by just how much death we have seen. Our intent is not to pass judgment on the TV shows that portray death and violence. Our job is to report the findings and then let people form their own opinions,” said Rick Paskin, Managing Director of Funeralwise.com.
