Can The Walking Dead season 8 turn around ratings slump? Here’s one way…

Another week of The Walking Dead season 8 has come and gone, and the trend continues for the AMC series of posting the lowest ratings since the first season.

This past episode of the series ended up drawing a 2.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic and just over 6.6 million viewers. We do still recognize that these would be very good ratings for any other show that’s out there on cable. Yet, we’re still talking about a franchise that has generated more than two times these ratings on a regular basis in the past. That’s a huge drop-off, and while the backlash to killing Carl is one of the show’s problems at present, it’s also far from the only one.

One of the biggest issues with The Walking Dead and one that could be overcome at some point is its sense of place. A part of what made the first few years so exciting was that you were constantly seeing the characters try to figure life out in a wide array of different environments, whether it be Hershel’s Farm or the prison, on the road, or at Terminus. There were so many different directions that the show went in and from a survival standpoint, that was fascinating. Everything changed constantly and you were effectively getting a chance to be constantly surprised by both the location and the story of the show.

Over the past couple of years, though, things have become far more sedentary. Alexandria is now the de-facto home base and we’re not seeing too much in the way of navigating away from that. Sure, we have both the Kingdom and the Hilltop, but they only add so much dimension into the story at this point. With everyone more settled in there is less of that feeling that something crazy could be around every turn; without it, the show misses something and you want a healthy mix of locations old and new.

If The Walking Dead became more of a traveling show in the future some of these issues could be fixed — though it’s clear that there are also other issues, including the pacing of the All Out War storyline and also the mere fact that this is season 8 and there is no apparent end in sight. It’s really hard to maintain a massive viewing audience, especially for a serialized show, eight years in.

What we do know for certain is this: It’s going to be really hard for The Walking Dead to get some of the viewers it has lost back unless it finds a way to make some sort of drastic change.

Related – Preview Sunday night’s new episode of The Walking Dead

What do you think could improve The Walking Dead ratings at this point? Share below!

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