‘The Walking Dead’ season 7, episode 9 receives nice ratings bump
For most of “The Walking Dead” season 7A, there was one trend in which many viewers were commenting on — and it was a downward one. The show was in the midst of one of its biggest ratings ruts since the start of the series, and there were many different factors that it could be attributed to, whether it be polarizing reactions to Negan, the show’s glacial pace in terms of pushing the story forward, or some distractions like NFL football and the Presidential Election.
At least now, there is some reasonably good news to report on when it comes to the midseason premiere. Despite airing against the Grammys, Sunday night’s new episode ended up generating a 5.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This was a substantial improvement on the winter finale, and is the show’s strongest rating since October 30, the episode after the violent season 7 premiere.
Now, do we get the sense that this rating is going to last a very long time? Hardly, and mostly because of the fact that the show tends to get some of its biggest ratings for its premieres / finales. We don’t exactly see that changing all that much as we move into the coming weeks, even without the Grammys around. For one, we do still think that Sunday’s still wasn’t as great as similar installments from past seasons, and it also has a challenge coming up courtesy of the Academy Awards a week from Sunday.
We know it probably sounds like we’re being overly negative about “The Walking Dead” as a franchise right now, but the reality here still is that there is zero reason to be when looking at the larger TV picture — a 5.7 rating is still by far the biggest primetime rating for a scripted show of the year so far, and it even easily topped the monster edition of “Saturday Night Live” this weekend with host Alec Baldwin.
Do you think “The Walking Dead” is going to fall further in the ratings as we get further along into this season? Share below, and head over here to read our review now of the midseason premiere. (Photo: AMC.)