Posted on 10/16/2018 2:03:12 PM PDT by EdnaMode
The Walking Dead was all about looking to the future on Sunday but when it comes to the ratings, the future is looking increasingly bleak for the AMC zombie apocalypse series.
With a 2.0 rating among adults 18-49, the second episode of the ninth season of the show based on Robert Kirkman’s comics took the small screen’s once top rated show off a cliff to an all-time series low. “The Bridge” episode comes off last week’s highly promoted season opener, which was the lowest debut for the series and the second least watched premiere.
The October 14 TWD snagged an audience of 5 million, which was a drop of 19% from the October 7 season opener of the reset series. Among the 18-49, TWD fell 21% from the Season 9 debut.
On a show now available early on the no-ad AMC Premiere service and increasingly leaning towards delayed viewing, those drops are actually a tiny bit less than the comparative declines in Season 8. Also, TWD was facing the bite of a much watched Boston Red Sox’s win over the Houston Astros in the ALCS on October 14 and Tom Brady making some NFL history on a rising Sunday Night Football.
However, and even with the overall same day decline on both broadcast and cable that doesn’t take away from the fact that TWD is performing worst now in the demo and with viewers than even its first few episodes of the abbreviated Season 1 back in 2019 did. It also cannot avoid the reality that in the key demo “The Bridge” cratered 50% from what “The Damned” second episode of a declining Season 8 drew on October 29 last year.
AMC, of course, like to save their powder for the Live +3 numbers that are expected later this week.
With all that, TWD has a potential ace card or two to still play this season. Series OG Andrew Lincoln is leaving for good this year and Lauren Cohan is stepping out to be co-lead on the ABC midseason newbie Whiskey Cavalier. So far, exactly when and at what point in the season those departures will occur has not been unveiled. Yet, if past big moments on TWD are any indication, they will certainly be well watched, on one platform or another.
I so agree. Frank Darabont, the original show runner, lasted through season 1 and the beginning of season 2. He quit or was fired (depending on whom you believe) when the show became such a surprise mega-hit during season 1 that the producers demanded he create twice as many episodes for the new season 2. But the demand came with the same budget as allowed for half as many episodes in season 1. Darabont and AMC have been embroiled in lawsuits against each other that continue to this day.
Glen Mazzara took over as show runner during season 2 and lasted until the end of season 3. The show was definitely feeling a reduction in quality, but not as precipitously as would become the case in subsequent seasons after he quit at the end of season 3.
Scott Gimple took over for seasons 4-8, and the show continued to get more unwatchable with each new season. He has been the death knell of the show, imo.
Despite the fact that the producers put Angela Kang in the show runner role for the beginning of this current season (season 9), they created a new position for Gimple (Chief Content Officer), putting him at the head of both Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. I expect both shows to continue their steady decline.
“I think a lot of people gave up when Rick let Negan live.”
It was absurd that Negan would let Rick live, and its absurd that Rick would let Negan live.
Oatmeal is good for you...too much oatmeal and you might decide to have more pancakes....
Gimp le has been just the worst. He has no idea how to keep a story interesting. It seems like the only idea he has, which he uses over and over, is to kill off characters for shock value. It’s one thing to kill off a liked character to advance a story line (I.e. Shane or Herschel). But Gimpe has been killing characters solely to upset the audience, like Carl, Beth, Abraham, and so on. After a. while, you stop being emotionally invested because you know it doesn’t matter, then Boom!!! Low ratings...
Tried to watch this, gave it a half dozen episodes, concluded, these characters are too stupid to live and could care less if they all died... just gore porn as far as I could tell...
I know it’s popular, but not in my house.
After the first year, you have all sorts of real world issues, like the real effects of human society breaking down.
No more new stuff getting manufactured, which means stuff which gets old, rots, or breaks can't be replaced. Stored food reaches the end of its shelf life. Canned food can last a long time IF properly stored, but in abandoned houses will be exposed to weather and cans will rust.
By year 5, surviving people would be in bad shape.
Is Nielsen’s neutral 3rd party measurement perfect?
Nope, but those that buy & sell the $70b of US TV advertising find it good enough.
Particularly when non-neutral 1st party measurement produces situations like this:
https://twitter.com/TVGrimReaper/status/1052586363621584896
After hearing the actors and producer speak I lost all interest.
They are extreme leftists.
Can someone explain to me why every relationship now on this show is inter-racial? Rich and Michonne, Father Gabriel and Jadis, Ezekiel and Carol? I have nothing against that, but it’s pretty bizarre. Are same race relationships considered not politically correct today?
There’s been a huge increase in inter-racial relationships on TV shows and in commercials over the last few weeks. I’m not sure why though.
Oops, meant last few years.
I just noticed the other day that Season 8 was streaming on Netflix, so I began watching.
This is the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen from writers filling the shoes of those before them who really excelled.
They tanked the show. Spiked the ball. Pick your metaphor, it had to be intentional. If not, producers & writers are the dumbest SOBs ever.
I really don’t care if it has a Season 9; I’ll probably never watch another AMC product again.
I hate the night time episodes, it’s so dark you can’t see what is going on.
Tired of 10 commercials between scenes.
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