The Walking Dead, the popular zombie series, is suffering its lowest ratings since 2013. Although there are several reasons for the decline, it's still too early to tell for fans to expect more bad news.
According to a report, The Walking Dead pulled in a shade under 11 milliion viewers for its most recent episode. In comparison, the premiere episode for Walking Dead which featured the deaths of 2 of its main characters, had 17 million viewers.
One possible reason for the decline from the 1st episode was because of the violence, showcased by the show in its two death scenes. Many fans who posted on different forums and social media noted that they were used to seeing violence on the show, but the gory and sadistic death scenes were too much for them. Even after 7 seasons of watching The Walking Dead, fans were ready to walk away from the series due to excessive violence shown in the premiere.
The scene involved, Neegan, The Walking Dead's current primary antagonist, using a barbed wire wrapped baseball bat to repeatedly bash the head of his victim until leaving nothing but a messy pulp of flesh. What made the episode more revolting was it happened twice, using the same exact brutal method.
The numbers might not prove the negative effect the priemere had on its viewers, but the sharp decline in a short amount of time for the succeeding episodes is still a cause for concern. In the second episode, only 12.5 million viewers tuned in to watch the episode. This is a 25% decrease of viewers from the premiere episode. In comparison, from the same time of the last season, The Walking Dead was drawing 13 million viewers to the 11 million viewers from this season. Reports also show that there is a consistent weekly decline in the episodes.
Despite the drop, at 11 million viewers, The Walking Dead is still one of the most watched shows on television. It dominated the 18-34 demographic and still demands the most coverage from the press than most shows. There is a chance that The Walking Dead might get its groove back once the season comes to an end. In last season's finale, The Walking Dead had the third highest rating compared to other finales of the show.
Perhaps the show could consider toning down the violence to avoid scaring their viewers. But despite that, The Walking Dead will still continue walking on if it maintains its large viewership.
