Most fans may not be aware given the stigma around "The Walking Dead," but the show's ratings have actually been slipping ever since season six kicked off last year. This week's midseason premiere was down slightly again, begging the question of if "The Walking Dead" is losing steam? The answer is a bit tricky to figure out.
The season six midseason premiere fell 12 percent in overall viewership from the midseason finale, according to Cinema Blend. Variety is also reporting that the highly coveted 18-49 demo saw a decline of 15 percent. Coupled with the lower live ratings from the fall, this means that less people are tuning in on the night of each new episode than ever before in the show's run.
At first glance, this doesn't look great for AMC's flagship series. The season five premiere attracted a whopping 17.3 million total viewers, while the season six premiere "only" drew in 14.63 million, which was the highest-rated episode of the season thus far.
However, measuring viewership in the DVR era is still an inexact science of sorts. "The Walking Dead" is still one of television's leaders when you factor in Live + three day and Live + seven day delays. It's important to factor in all of the streaming opportunities AMC provides for "The Walking Dead" when discussing how many eyeballs are viewing each episode.
To be clear, none of this means that "The Walking Dead" is in trouble. Even if the show's ratings never rise above the 14 or so million it is averaging right now, it will still be one of the most popular series on TV. There's no danger of "The Walking Dead" being cancelled anytime soon.
But these numbers do suggest that audiences are somewhat over the novelty of a blockbuster zombie TV show. Taken one step further, the recent trends should give the network pause when discussing the possibility of a third "Walking Dead" show.
We'll see if fan favorite comic book villain Negan, expected to arrive during the season six finale, can help "The Walking Dead's" little ratings problem. Until then, you can catch the show every Sunday night at 9 pm ET on AMC.
