‘Walking Dead’ Ratings Fall To All-Time Midseason Finale Low; Up From Last Week
SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details of the Season 9 midseason finale episode of The Walking Dead.
Jesus is dead, Daryl is back, the Whisperers are here (and in killing mode), Alexandra is isolated from all the other communities and The Walking Dead has hit another ratings low with its midseason finale in a Season 9 that has already seen several lows.
While up 8% among adults 18-49 and 6% in overall viewers from last week’s series low “Stradivarius “episode, Sunday’s “Evolution” show was the lowest rated and least watched midseason finale for the AMC zombie apocalypse series ever.
Snagging a 2.0 rating and an audience of 5.1 million, the airing that saw the fatal stabbing of Tom Payne’s character was down a very hard 43% in the demo from the previous midseason finale rock bottom of Season 2. That November 27, 2011 “Pretty Much Dead Already” episode pulled in 6.62 million sets of eyeballs and was the previously least watched midseason finale for TWD.
Experiencing an audience that has moved on to some degree and finally feeling the waves of dramatically shifting viewing habits by a loyal audience that had struck most of the TV landscape years ago, TWD’s Season 9 midpoint closer declined 41% in the demo from the midseason finale of Season 8 on December 10, 2017. In viewers, the Season 8 midseason ender bested the Season 9 episode by just over 54%.
Sunday’s TWD matched the demo result of the much hyped “What Comes After” episode of November 4 that saw the helicopter series-exit of Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes. Looking at the viewership figures, the Michael E. Satrazemis directed November 25 episode was fairly steady with the Greg Nicotero helmed episode that also saw the last appearance by Lauren Cohan.
With TWD still the third highest rated series on TV, AMC itself will officially chime in themselves once the Live + 3 numbers are at their fingertips later this week and delayed viewing offers some traction.
The Walking Dead is back for the rest of its ninth season on February 10, 2019.
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