How Much Will The Walking Dead Affect Westworld Ratings?

Westworld ratings have been excellent and getting better, but might they be in for a steep decline now that The Walking Dead has returned with new episodes?

While Westworld hasn’t reached the lofty viewership heights that HBO enjoys with Game of Thrones, it’s enjoyed nothing but good news on the ratings front so far. The series debuted to strong numbers but actually picked up steam with episode 3, which was the most-watched live episode of the series so far.

Yet there’s possible trouble on the horizon, and it comes in the form of zombies. The Walking Dead returns this weekend after giving its fans a full summer to ponder its biggest cliffhanger ever.

In other words, Westworld isn’t just about to get competition, it’s going up against the most popular show on television airing what could be its most highly anticipated hour so far. That’s rough.

There’s undoubtedly some crossover audience between the two series, and logic would suggest that most members of that group will opt for the Negan reveal Sunday night. It would be foolish not to expect the Westworld numbers to take a hit as a result.

Yet there’s reason to think HBO won’t sweat that too much. Through the first three weeks, episodes of Westworld have been more or less doubling in viewership once time-delayed numbers are added in. The premiere now has had around 12 million people watch, or almost four times the amount that watched live a few weeks ago.

Since HBO doesn’t show commercials, it doesn’t have to worry about advertisers getting antsy about this kind of disparity. In a perfect world, two shows this popular and buzzworthy wouldn’t be airing head-to-head like this, but in 2016, it’s not the huge deal it would have been once upon a time.

In other words, The Walking Dead will do what it does. Westworld probably won’t have as many people watching Sunday nights at 9, but it, too, will be fine. Any other outcome would be a big surprise.

Home/HBO