‘The Walking Dead’ season 7 levels off as midseason finale nears
The ratings for this past episode, entitled “Sing Me a Song,” are as such: A 5.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This is the first time all season that we’ve seen the show actually increase from one episode to the next. Excluding finales / premieres, this is the last time that we’ve seen a week-to-week improvement since March.
It’s still so hard to pinpoint a precise reason why the ratings for this season continue to drop, though our prevailing theory at the moment is that it does have something to do with viewer fatigue coupled with the reaction to the storytelling so far. Remember that many of these viewers may still be watching, but what’s the incentive for someone to watch live when what you’re getting is an extended episode on a supporting character without a lot of significant story movement? That’s not the sort of thing someone is going to spoil for you, so you can instead decide to merely pick this back up and watch it a little bit down the road while skipping the commercials. This season may actually be well-suited for the binge-watch more so than it is trying to watch it play out live.
We do expect ratings to rise, probably to around a 5.4 or so, for the midseason finale. There will be an expectation that quite a bit happens in terms of important content, and with that even some of the more casual viewers will be inclined to check it out. We do still contend that the extended episodes are a fact in the declining live numbers, but that may take some conversations with the network before that particular note is handed down — we at least hope that it is.
Want to get some other news when it comes to the midseason finale? Then be sure to head over to the link here right now! (Photo: AMC.)
Geena
December 11, 2016 @ 4:40 am
The comic book peeps will be there on Sunday like white on rice. Casual viewers may tune in. But then there’s the disappointed bunch, the viewers who feel they’ve been “done wrong” by the show. Once the “deal breaker” occurs why would one go back? For more of the same? I personally feel sad about it.
As far as Scott Gimple and the ratings?
We are just trying to give Mr. Gimple ‘an emotional experience’ and we didn’t want things like the great ratings to get in the way of that. Just ‘Trying to protect Gimple’s experience’. That’s all.