Bad News for 'Walking Dead' in Premiere Ratings
by EG
It's clear now that the days when The Walking Dead was the biggest thing on TV are over. Ratings for the series' season 8 premiere this week were in line with last season's average viewership, but that's not good news. TWD has always seen much higher than average ratings for season premiere episodes, and this season's premiere ratings dipped by more than 40% compared to last season's. Worse, this week's ratings were the lowest for any season premiere episode since season 3 in 2012. If the series' season-long ratings pattern remains the way it's been all along, that could mean TWD might hit ratings levels later in season 8 that are in line with those of season 2 episodes. That would be a very bad thing.
Basic cable's crown jewel, The Walking Dead, premiered its eighth season on Sunday night. And while it's ratings heyday is now behind it, the zombie drama still obliterated all but the NFL in its return.
Initial Nielsen numbers give the episode an average 11.4 million viewers, 6.5 million of them adults 18-49, which translates to a 5.0 rating in the key demo. Comparing those stats to the comparable premiere a year ago illustrates a dramatic drop, 43 percent among total viewers, but one that also isn't entirely fair. The seventh season premiere of The Walking Dead proved to a be a ratings anomaly. Thanks to interest in a cliffhanger, the series neared series highs for a live-plus-same day telecast — averaging 17 million viewers and 10.7 million adults 18-49.
The drama subsequently saw its viewership suffer from some fatigue. Though it still recoups a great deal with live-plus-three and live-plus-seven day lifts, as most scripted fare does, the seventh season went on to average a total 16.4 million viewers (10.3 million adults 18-49) once all views were factored. That marked the second consecutive season of a downward trajectory after a five-year meteoric rise that culminated in an average 20.1 million viewers (13.3 million adults 18-49) during the 2014-15 run.
At the start of this eighth season, The Walking Dead remains the highest rated scripted series on TV of sorts. While its dominance over the rest of ad-supported cable and broadcast — new leader This Is Us (NBC) is pacing ahead of The Big Bang Theory (CBS) at the start of the broadcast season — seems to remain assured, the specter of HBO's Game of Thrones looms large. The pay cable juggernaut's recently-concluded seventh season averaged nearly 31 million viewers, a great majority of them adults 18-49, with all mediums tallied.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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