AMC's "Fear The Walking Dead" got off to a great start with a cable premiere record of 10.1 million viewers. But that mammoth number came back in August before the NFL returned to dominate Sunday night television. Since then, "The Walking Dead" spinoff show has seen its ratings decline for two straight weeks.
Episode three, titled "The Dog," brought in around 7.2 million viewers this weekend, according to TV By The Numbers. That's a solid amount of eyeballs, especially for a cable show, but it's the lowest output of the young season for "Fear The Walking Dead." It's also a 12 percent drop from Episode two's 8.2 million viewers. Again, that's a decent retention rate, but it isn't the sort of numbers AMC was hoping for, especially with a second season already ordered. If the show continues at its current rate, season one may end with a whimper of five or so million viewers as opposed to the bang of "The Walking Dead's" 17.8 million audience members that tuned in for the season five finale.
None of this is to say that "Fear The Walking Dead" is a bad show. In fact, it cares more about its characters than its predecessor. It's focus on creating three-dimensional people to care about is refreshing. But "The Walking Dead" is a ratings behemoth that is able to counter NFL programming and average roughly 14 million viewers per week. "Fear The Walking Dead" is still standing strong, but not when compared to its Big Brother.
We'll track how the show does the rest of the season and whether or not it will have an impact on season two.
