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“The Walking Dead” Ratings: The Good and the Bad
It’s easy to pick apart ratings and find the meaning you’re looking for, which is why we’re trying to be impartial about them. It’s well known here on the site that I don’t like “The Walking Dead” (although I’m a huge fan of the comic), and that John Squires does (here’s what he had to say about the season finale). In the end, all that matters is that AMC’s zombie series is a really big deal for the horror genre, and its success only helped open the doors for other shows such as “The Exorcist”, “Preacher”, “Bates Motel” and many, many more.
I’ve been keeping up with the ratings since the decline started, and was hoping that I wouldn’t have anything to report as Season 7 came to a close. In fact, over the past few weeks, the numbers began to plateau a bit, which was a good sign.
The March 5th episode hit an alarming 10.16, nearing single digits for the first time since 2012. I was certain I would be reporting on that, only to my surprise learn that the following week jumped to 10.68. While the March 19th episode dipped again to 10.31, it once again rebounded to 10.54 setting up the season finale. This past Sunday’s conclusion, which critics raved about, popped back up to 11.31. It’s unclear how many viewers will stick around for Season 8, but at least it feels as if the show hit a floor, instead of free falling. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that the 11.31 is the worst season finale since Season 2. The fifth season neared 16 million, so in just two years “The Walking Dead” has literally lost nearly one-third of their viewers. Another drop like that and we’re talking about 5 million viewers by the end of Season 9. With that said, the ratings do appear to have plateaued, which could mean the show merely lost its casual viewers, with the diehard fanatics sticking through until the very end.
Again, “The Walking Dead” is a really big deal for all of us, so we hope for its continued success. But then again, nothing lasts forever…
What did you guys think of the finale?
All of us here at Bloody Disgusting are deeply saddened to learn that George A. Romero Foundation Founder and President Suzanne Desrocher-Romero has passed away.
GARF shared in a statement on socials, “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Suzanne Desrocher Romero. Suzanne passed away of natural causes on June 24 at her home in Toronto after a prolonged illness.”
The statement continues, “Suzanne was the fierce leader of the George A. Romero Estate and The George A. Romero Foundation. She worked tirelessly to preserve George’s legacy. Her work at the foundation will continue to inspire and live on for generations to come. The family asks for privacy at this time.”
Desrocher-Romero founded GARF in 2018, after her late husband’s passing in 2017, and has been a fierce advocate for his legacy and the arts. It was her mission to “strengthen horror as a serious field of global study,” and she was a tremendous fighter on behalf of Romero’s works and supporting new filmmakers inspired by his legacy.
It was Desrocher-Romero who spearheaded the recovery and restoration of The Amusement Park, and, as the person in charge of the George A. Romero estate, worked closely with author Daniel Kraus on completing unfinished novels like Pay the Piper and The Living Dead. She most recently celebrated the restoration of her favorite of Romero’s zombie films, Day of the Dead, and was hard at work producing the upcoming film Twilight of the Dead.
That passionate advocacy led to Suzanne Desrocher-Romero becoming family to Bloody Disgusting as well.
2023 marked the start of an ongoing partnership between Bloody FM and GARF on The Dead, a scripted audio series spanning multiple seasons that saw Desrocher-Romero working closely with the Bloody FM team and mentoring the series’s contributing writers with GARF. To say her loss will be felt internally is an understatement.
“Anytime George Romero is mentioned is good, because what we are doing is to provide a healthy legacy. We’re uplifting his legacy, we’re supporting the archive, and we’re also supporting the Horror Study Center. So, all of these three things are what the Foundation is striving to do. As far as I’m concerned, the more we say George Romero’s name, the better it is,” Desrocher-Romero recently told BD.
It’s the perfect encapsulation of her unwavering enthusiasm for supporting Romero’s legacy and the horror genre, and just a glimpse at how much she contributed to preserving it. She is, in short, an inspiration.
We send our deepest condolences to Suzanne Desrocher-Romero’s family, friends, and GARF.
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