The Walking Dead ratings see big drop compared to last year

The Season 8 premiere of The Walking Dead was not only down 33% from the Season 7 opener, it’s the lowest rated premiere since Season 3.

Like the human population on the series itself, the viewership for The Walking Dead is starting to die off!

Courtesy of a new report at Forbes, we have learned the final numbers for the ratings of last Sunday’s Season 8 premiere of The Walking Dead. The final overall numbers for the show are at 11.4 million viewers, with 5.0 million in the coveted 18-39 demographic. Compare that to the Season 6 premiere which had 17.03 million viewers with 8.4 million in the 18-39 demo, and that’s a 33% decrease from one season to the next.

From the Forbes article, here’s the breakdown of each season of The Walking Dead so far:

Season 1 (2.7, 5.35 million)

Season 2 (3.8, 7.26 million)

Season 3 (5.8, 10.86 million)

Season 4 (8.2, 16.11 million)

Season 5 (8.7, 17.29 million)

Season 6 (7.4, 14.63 million)

Season 7 (8.4, 17.03 million)

Season 8 (5.0, 11.4 million)

This makes Season 8 the lowest rated premiere since Season 3. If you go back and look at the ratings from the Season 7 premiere, though, you’ll see that about 5 million viewers left instantly after that episode premiered. Perhaps after the over-the-top death of such a fan favorite character who’d been there since Season 1, literally millions of viewers were turned off. Ratings have more or less hovered since then, not falling down too much farther, but struggling to get back to where they once were.

Even with the drop, The Walking Dead is one of TV’s highest rated shows. It is not in any danger of being cancelled anytime soon. But if we see another 33% drop by the time the Season 9 premiere rolls around, then maybe it will be time to start getting worried.