‘The Walking Dead’ Ratings Drop From Mid-Season Premiere

The Walking Dead, the world’s favourite zombie show that’s not actually about zombies, is still enthralling audiences into its seventh season, though its ratings continue to fluctuate episode to episode.

The Walking Dead returned for season 7 last October with the heart-wrenching premiere ‘The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be’, which drew in over 17 million viewers – largely thanks to the cliffhanger the show’s writers left audiences to stew in at the end of season 6. Since the season premiere it has suffered a severe drop in ratings, with fans left reeling from the sudden and violent deaths of two of the series’ beloved main characters; despite this, it remains the dominant show on television on Sunday nights. The numbers have decreased steadily since 7×02, which had 12.46 million viewers, to the mid-season finale, which secured 10.48 million. These numbers would be fantastic for any show, but since The Walking Dead is known for smashing ratings, it’s a noticeable dip.

The most recent episode, charmingly entitled ‘New Best Friends’, has also suffered lower ratings than its immediate predecessor, the mid-season premiere, with a nevertheless solid 11.08 million. The episode featured Rick Grimes‘ recruitment of a pack of junkyard-dwellers for the war against Negan, as well as the absolution of Father Gabriel and a fight with a walker bristling with pikes and knives. It also showed Carol and Daryl’s reunion and another encounter between King Ezekiel’s knights and a gang of Saviours.

Showbuzz reports that the episode managed to beat its main competitor for the prime 18-49 age demographic on Sunday, the 2017 NBA All-Star Game.

The Walking Dead will return next Sunday on AMC with ‘Hostiles and Calamities’, an episode that will return to Negan’s Sanctuary.

Source: Showbuzz and Comicbook.com