It was one of this year's hotly debated issues, with millions of fans worldwide debating on whether or not "The Walking Dead's" Glenn Rhee survived falling into a horde of walkers. The topic garnered as much angst, anger and confusion as when "Game of Thrones" ended season five with Jon Snow being stabbed repeatedly. But Glenn's death, and eventual resurrection, resulted in a ratings surge for the popular zombie series.

"The Walking Dead" is still a ratings powerhouse, even though it's already in its sixth season. But when compared to previous seasons, the numbers generated by the premiere episode and episode two were apparently not as impressive.

However, things started to change with Glenn's (Steven Yeun) "death." According to "Deadline," 13.1 million viewers watched this season's third episode, the now infamous "Thank You," and 8.5 million of those viewers were in the all-important 18-49 demographic. The episode's ratings mark also saw an impressive 8 percent increase in its overall.

The numbers aren't in yet but Glenn's "resurrection" in episode seven has undeniably pushed the show's ratings up again. Despite a huge chunk of fans crying foul over what they perceived as a tricky ratings ploy by AMC, the series' penultimate episode for this year drew in a 6.7 rating in the 18-49 demo, a sizeable gain from the 6.5 it registered last week.

The episode, "Heads Up," also boosted the ratings for "Talking Dead." The series' companion show saw an amazing 6.2 million viewers tune in. Newcomer "Into the Badlands" also benefited as numerous fans tuned in to watch Yeun's message to his fans.

"The Walking Dead" fans are not the only ones happy that the pizza delivery boy turned badass survivor is back. A "Vanity Fair" article reported how relieved and overwhelmed the actor was with the fans' reactions and how bad he felt that he couldn't say anything, even to his family and close friends.

Of course, Glenn having survived doesn't mean that all is well in the world, especially now that Negan is reportedly on his way.

The next episode of "The Walking Dead" season six is set to air on Nov. 29.