While it’s still pulling in healthy numbers, ratings for the The Walking Dead have been on a fairly steep decline since 2016’s controversial season seven premiere, and this trend has continued into the current eighth season with the latest episode suffering the show’s lowest ever midseason finale numbers.
After a season eight premiere of 11.4 million viewers (down from the 17 million of season seven), ratings for the last few episodes of The Walking Dead have been hovering between the 7.5 and 8 million mark – the lowest numbers since season two.
Given that AMC has said on numerous occasions that it envisions “decades” of The Walking Dead, one would assume these numbers were concerning, but not so according to Skybound Entertainment CEO David Alpert, who has told Variety that:
“I don’t think in any way the brand has lost its relevance in general. I think we’re just seeing a decline in urgency across all media to consume something at a specific time.”
Alpert is of course correct that live viewing figures are increasingly losing their relevance as more and more of the audience moves towards various digital and catch-up services. That being said, reviews for the eighth season have also been very poor, and it’s hard to dispute that a section of the show’s audience has decided to call it a day.
Originally published January 7, 2018. Updated April 19, 2018.
