Friday, March 29, 2024

Ratings Rocked: “Walking Dead” Lost 6 Million Viewers from Beginning to End of this Season

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The show is called “The Walking Dead,” and that may come true pretty soon. The Season 7 finale had the lowest rating since Season 3– just 11.35 million viewers. And that number was down over 6 million from Episode 1 of this season, which drew 17.03 million viewers. The AMC hit is in free fall.

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What happened? Very simple. The season opener, highly anticipated, was so bloody, gory, intense and out of whack with any reality that viewers fled- in droves. While someone at AMC seems to think Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s portrayal of Negan is a hit, it’s simply a huge turn off. Maybe he’s too good an actor. But I, for one, left the minute he brandished that barbed wire club and never returned. I was not alone.

Nearly five million fans were gone after week 1. Of course, the cliffhanger return episodes always do well, and then there’s some fall off. But a look at the chart above (thanks to Wikipedia) shows nothing ever happened before in the “Walking Dead” history that compared to this debacle. After the 5th season return– the highest rating ever for the show at 17.30 million–the next episode dropped by about 2 million. And the numbers came back. This time, they did not.

AMC and the “Walking Dead” creators had better think about what Season 8 is going to look like, and how to lure back more than just their cult believers. Otherwise, the party is over. And the zombies have won.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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