"The Walking Dead" Season 7 ratings are dropping rapidly. The series which has completed its first half of Season 7 on Sunday reportedly still draws the biggest young audience and the Sunday finale episode had 10.58 million viewers on the night, out of which 6.53 million viewers come under advertiser-coveted 18-49 demography. Although this is a good performance compared to the other rival series, it marks a noticeable decline when compared to the shows own recent performance.
If compared to the last year's midseason finale, the demo audience has declined to 27%. On the other hand, it is 40% down from the season premiere. The first 6 episodes of season 7 attracted 11.05 demo audience within 7 days of air, as per Variety. Sunday's episode was for 90 minutes while last year's episode was of 1-hour duration. The last year's mid-season finale was aired on Nov.30, 2015 and it pulled in 14 million viewers.
The "The Walking Dead" Season 7 premier's performance was better than Season 6 premiere but the decline started from episode 2. Season 7's demo ratings have also fallen as compared to season 6 in Nielsen's Live+3 numbers.
However, the decline in the rating is not without a reason. From the very beginning of Season7 audiences are complaining about the content of Season 7. But last year negative reviews did not matter much because of its surging ratings, reported Vulture. However, now ratings of "The Walking Dead" has gone down so it is high time that AMC executives and producers should check whether the decline is due to viewers simply rejecting the creative direction of the show.
Nevertheless, "The Walking Dead" has proven as highly profitable for AMC even if the ratings are declining. Which means AMC is not going to part with the show so soon. But improving the content of the show will be always better for the network.