The reason we cover the viewership of “The Walking Dead” is because it’s interesting to see how popular the show has remained over the years, now in its eighth season. On the flip side, it’s also interesting to track when/why viewers have begun to tune out.
By any measure, AMC’s hit zombie series is still a ratings monster, but the show has been plagued by ratings troubles of late. Those troubles, it seems, are continuing.
Early ratings are in for this past Sunday night’s mid-season premiere of “The Walking Dead,” which was no doubt a big one, promising to be the final hour (or final 90 minutes, rather) of young Carl Grimes. One could say that the episode was a must-watch, but the just released Nielsen Live+Same Day ratings don’t necessarily reflect that.
The mid-season premiere “drew a 3.6 rating in adults 18-49 and 8.3 million [total] viewers,” reports Variety. Broken down by demographics, the episode nabbed 4.7 million viewers in the key 18-49 demo and 5.2 million in the 25-54 demo.
Sadly, that makes this one the lowest rated mid-season premiere to date in the key demo, a record previously held by Season 2’s mid-season premiere – that episode, back in 2012, pulled in 8.1 million viewers total, less than Season 8’s mid-season premiere, but had a superior 4.2 rating/5.4 million in that key demo. This Sunday’s premiere had an only slightly increased viewership over the recent mid-season finale.
For the sake of context and comparison, the highest rated season of the show to date, Season 5, had an average weekly viewership of 14.38 million tuning in.
To put a much more positive spin on the mid-season premiere’s performance, it’s worth noting that it toppled the Winter Olympics closing ceremony in the key demo.
Another positive, “The Walking Dead” was still Sunday’s top-rated show on cable.
