Cable ratings: ‘The Walking Dead’ season 7 drops; ‘Big Little Lies’ has so-so start
The assumption that we had going into this past weekend was that we would see some sort of decline for “The Walking Dead” on the air; the bigger question was just how big specifically we were going to see the zombie drama slide.
In the end, it wasn’t as bad as we were worried about, or anywhere near as big as the drop from the start of season 7 and the episode that followed it. Sunday’s episode, which featured the debut of Garbageland (as we like to call it), generated a 5.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This was a drop of just under 8% from the week before, but given that the show lost 27% after the aforementioned premiere, this isn’t so bad. This is the best rating for a non-premiere episode since November 20; obviously, these ratings are still phenomenal compared to anything else on TV, and with this show in particular you really have nothing else to compare it to other than itself.
In terms of total viewers, the show drew over 11 million for the first time for a non-premiere since November 13.
“Big Little Lies” – Let’s move on to the HBO series, given that we had questions there regarding if the star power of Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, and Nicole Kidman would be enough to convince people to subscribe and/or watch. The results through one episode are mixed.
The premiere episode of the series drew 1.1 million viewers, which is down from the 1.96 million who watched the “Westworld” premiere in the fall but also an improvement from the premiere of “The Night Of,” which was somewhat skewed because HBO released it on streaming early. It’s not a number to shout from the top of the mountain, but it’s a nice building block. Remember that many quality HBO shows build as they go on. For example, “Westworld” topped 2 million viewers on three occasions after its premiere, and “Game of Thrones” wasn’t always the ratings titan that it is today.
Remember here that we’re only discussing live+same day results, and for HBO shows in general these are mere fractions of their total audience.
Do you think airing against “The Walking Dead” hurts “Big Little Lies,” or are the two shows so different that it doesn’t matter? Be sure to share in the comments below. (Photo: AMC.)