‘The Walking Dead’ season 6 actually forced to defend ratings

To us, there is little crazier in the world than someone thinking that the ratings for “The Walking Dead” are anything short of on another level. This show is the biggest on any channel at the moment when it comes to scripted programming. Yet, this is the world we live in now: Everyone expects things to be constantly bigger, and that includes people apparently on the latest AMC earnings call.

AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan admitted, per The Hollywood Reporter, that the drama’s ratings are “modestly down” compared to season 5, but he did make a good case explaining everything that the show is up against:

“For the fourth consecutive season, it holds the top spot as the number 1 show on TV among the key demo adults 18-49 … The competition for live viewing has been particularly intense this season.”

Some of the examples that were given were sports programming from the NFL and MLB, which is an interesting direction to take here given that both of these were definitely around last year, as well. We know that the network and its parent company cannot say this, but the decline to us is just a function of television gravity. Eventually, you are going to fall, and we’re now at the point where it is hard to get new viewers to catch up, and there are some people moving on to other things. This will probably happen the remainder of the series’ run, and that is far from terrible. What it has done so far is extraordinary.

Want to get some other news when it comes to “The Walking Dead”? Then be sure to head over to the link here right away for specific ratings on this past episode! Also, you can sign up now to score some other TV updates on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: AMC.)