‘Into the Badlands’ faces biggest test yet entering episode 4

There have been times this season that we’ve felt for “Into the Badlands,” given that it has been at the brunt of a lot of criticism it has not asked for or deserved thanks to it airing directly after “The Walking Dead.” Still, we’re glad that there are people out there who have started to recognize that this is a very entertaining show, and something worthy of watching even if you are just waiting around for “Talking Dead” to come on.

With all of that said, Sunday’s episode is the first episode to air independently of the zombie drama, which means that it will face a big test in the ratings. One interesting trend is that the show actually rose in its week two ratings, scoring a 2.5 in the 18-49 demographic versus a 2.3 the week before. That’s rare for any show in its third episode, even with it in mind that it aired after “The Walking Dead” finale.

We still would not be shocked to see the show lose around 50% of its audience tonight, but our feeling is that if it gets anything over a 1.0, its odds of a renewal are very high. The only reason that we feel like one has not been announced to date is because AMC is waiting to see if the show can generate some sort of good numbers without the likes of Rick Grimes around.

In total, there are three more episodes still to go this season, and we’ll bring you some more coverage of them (including some ratings reports) over the course of the coming days as the information starts to come out.