Ratings for midseason of The Walking Dead plummets to all-time low
By Ryan Stuver
Despite ratings going up from last weeks episode “Stradivarius”, The Walking Dead’s “Evolution,” scored the lowest ratings for a midseason finale since the show’s debut.
The Walking Dead has been trying to shake things up, there’s no doubt about it. Two of the shows biggest draws, Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan (who plays Rick Grimes and Maggie Rhee, respectively), are both gone (at least for now), and although the show is still massively popular, the ratings have been declining for some time now.
As a fan of the show since the very beginning, I’ll be the first to admit that the last 2-3 seasons have been fairly disappointing. Season 9, however, has restored my faith in The Walking Dead. I can’t wait for Sunday nights. But the problem is, has too much damage been done to prevent the ratings from rising back to the incredible numbers they once were?
The midseason scored a 2.0 rating with an audience of 5.1 million, which is 43% down from Season 2’s midseason, which pulled in 6.62 million viewers. For an even more eye-opening comparison, Season 5’s midseason finale scored a 7.6 rating with 14.8 million viewers. Quite the dramatic change.
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Are these sinking numbers going to kill The Walking Dead? No. It’s still the third highest rated series on cable TV and has fans all over the world watching, writing, and obsessing over it. Season 9 has ushered in a new era with so much change, that it just might be worth checking out for the viewers who quit.
It’s tough to keep a show running this long. I’ve witnessed several friends and peers give up on the TWD due to what they deemed dragging plot, lack of interesting characters, and loss of their favorites. SPOILER ALERT BELOW:
The midseason finale killed off another fairly important character in Jesus (Tom Payne), the first of many to come at the hands of the Whisperers.
Next. The Walking Dead ratings increase for Andrew Lincoln’s final episode. dark
The way I see it, change is coming for the best. No character is safe… ever. If fans gripes are that they kill too many characters in a show with the name “Dead” in the title–one where a guy bludgeoned two beloved characters to death with a baseball bat, maybe it’d be best to watch something else.
If you can get past that, Season 9’s been pretty great thus far.
The Walking Dead returns in February. We’ll see if word of Season 9’s vast improvements can up the show’s ratings come the season finale.