‘The Walking Dead’ season 7, episode 6 ratings: Another week, another season low

It feels like we’ve been covering the ratings now for “The Walking Dead” on AMC for many years, but there’s a singular trend that is starting to really stand out with it: The steady decline of both total viewers and adults 18-49 in terms of live+same-day viewing. Last week, we reported that we were seeing the lowest ratings for the show in several years; now, we’re saying the same thing yet again.

Per the latest viewing figures that are out there, this past episode “Swear,” which was largely a showcase for Alanna Masterson’s character of Tara, drew in total a 4.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic to go along with 10.4 million viewers. We actually thought that this was a very compelling episode, but at the same time, we understand the complaints regarding the pace of both it and the season as a whole. It’s been slow; very slow.

We also feel like one of the biggest problems here with this series is simply the fact that the recent episodes simply are not necessarily appointment-viewing in the way that the premiere or the most-recent finale was. Do you absolutely need to watch live in order to learn that Tara’s learned about the death of Denise? We don’t think so, and there was enough information out there in advance for many viewers to know that this was an episode that would feature Tara at the very least heavily.

We’re also in an age now of commercial-free mass viewing thanks to Netflix and other premium outlets, so we assume for many people there’s a feeling of “why waste an hour and change on this now when I can watch tomorrow, and spare myself 15-20 minutes of commercials?”. This is a problem that virtually every broadcast series is facing in some shape or form.

Regardless of the reasoning, AMC has to hope that the bleeding stops at some point for the show. Sure, it’s in its seventh season, and the fact that it kept its rating for as long as it did is remarkable. It’s not in any danger of getting canceled; but, if you’ve got amazing numbers, shouldn’t you want to maintain that?

You can read our full review of “Swear” by heading over to this link right now. (Photo: AMC.)