This season of The Walking Dead has brought confirmed baseball fan Negan fully into the fold, losing two beloved cast members in the process. A downright unholy amount of people tuned in for the bloody but arguably unnecessary premiere, but subsequent season 7 entries have seen a noticeable decline in viewership. In fact, as Comic Bookreported Tuesday, the ratings for AMC's money machine have now dropped to their lowest point since season 3.
The most recent episode, Sunday's "Go Getters," clocked just under 11 million viewers. While no one is arguing against 11 million being a huge fucking number, that's a pretty hefty drop from the season 7 premiere's haul of over 17 million presumed Negan haters. The last time Dead was doing numbers below 11 million, we were still worried about the Governor.
Since the premiere, Dead has seen a steady decline in viewership each week. This is not entirely uncommon. But the numbers do offer a genuine source of concern other than that pesky "lowest since season 3" distinction. The disparity between the premiere and this week's "Go Getters," Cinema Blendnoted, is actually the biggest in the series' history.
Though none of these stats are likely to cause anything near an abrupt end for the series, they're especially timely considering showrunner Scott M. Gimple pretty much confirmed just last week that a Dead movie would (eventually!) be a real thing that actually exists. "I'm sure one way or another, one day, it'll happen," Gimple toldComic Book. "I think it would be cool." Me too. Let's give Dead a proper sendoff by wrapping it all up in with a movie. Leave on a (relatively) high note.
