With just one more episode in Season 9 following it, this past Sunday night’s second-to-last episode of “The Walking Dead” escalated the war between Heroes and Whisperers, to say the very least. It was titled ‘The Calm Before’ but the episode was anything but calm, playing out like a season finale and leaving *10* characters (some major) without their heads.
The episode, which has been compared to the infamous “Red Wedding” from “Game of Thrones,” was one of the most talked about episodes of “The Walking Dead” in years, and yet, it was unfortunately the least-watched in the show’s entire history. With a 1.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic, ‘The Calm Before’ pulled in 4.15 million total viewers. That’s down from the previous week’s 4.57 million viewers (a number that itself was down from the week before’s 4.83 million); previously, the least-watched episode was 9.11, with 4.39 million viewers.
For the sake of context, here are the episode-by-episode numbers for Season 9:
- Episode 9.1 – 6.08 million
- Episode 9.2 – 4.95 million
- Episode 9.3 – 5.04 million
- Episode 9.4 – 5.10 million
- Episode 9.5 *Rick’s Final Episode* – 5.41 million
- Episode 9.6 – 5.40 million
- Episode 9.7 – 4.79 million
- Episode 9.8 *Mid-Season Finale* – 5.09 million
- Episode 9.9 *Mid-Season Premiere* – 5.16 million
- Episode 9.10 – 4.54 million
- Episode 9.11 – 4.39 million
- Episode 9.12 – 4.71 million
- Episode 9.13 – 4.83 million
- Episode 9.14 – 4.57 million
- Episode 9.15 – 4.15 million
Granted, we’re talking Live+Same day numbers here, and there’s no doubt a whole lot of people caught up on ‘The Calm Before’ after hearing how crazy it was. But it’s a bummer to see that the show is shedding viewers as the season gets better and better, and we hope to see that number tick upwards for what’s sure to be a must-watch finale this Sunday night.
Speaking of this Sunday night, Winter is coming…
