Things seem to be going from bad to worse for AMC’s long-running zombie drama The Walking Dead. After last weekend’s season nine opener plummeted 50% in viewership from the season eight premiere (the lowest since the series premiere back in 2010), Sunday’s episode ‘The Bridge’ has scored the lowest rating in the show’s history.
The second episode of season nine fell a further 19% from last week with an audience of 4.9 million. That translated to 2.0 rating in the key 18-49 demo, besting the previous low of 2.4 from the fourth episode of the first season. It’s also perilously close to the lowest audience numbers, 4.71 million viewers, set by the second ever episode. Given the show’s form, it seems a safe bet that Sunday’s upcoming third episode will reach an all-time low in terms of viewers.
In fairness to the series, these numbers don’t tell the full story, as The Walking Dead is now available to viewers early via the AMC Premiere service, delayed viewing has increased across the board since the first season, and ‘The Bridge’ did face some stiff competition from Monday Night Football. However, with the impending loss of cast members Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) and Lauren Cohan (Maggie Rhee), one has to wonder how much life is left in The Walking Dead…
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