'Walking Dead' Finale Hits Five-Year Ratings Low

The Season 7 finale of The Walking Dead certainly wasn’t riding on TV easy street on a Sunday that saw the return of WrestleMania, a steady Academy of Country Music Awards on CBS, the season-high-hitting Big Little Lies finale on HBO, the penultimate episode of Homeland‘s latest season and the series finale of Black Sails on Starz.

The nearly 90-minute “The First Day Of The Rest of Your Life” episode of The Walking Dead on April 2 snagged 11.3 million total viewers and 7.1 million among adults 18-49 for a 5.9 rating. While up 7% in total audience over its March 26 show and rising 10% in the key demo, the finale directed by executive Greg Nicotero dropped 20% in viewers and 14% in 18-49s from the Season 6 finale of April 3, 2016 – which saw double-digit declines from TWD’s all-time finale high of Season 5.

With all that competition Sunday night, the Live+3 results for AMC’s zombie apocalypse blockbuster might tell us the real reach of the April 2 season ender for the show based on Robert Kirkman’s comics. AMC should hope so: The Season 7 viewership and demo results are the third lowest in the show’s history behind the 5.97 million of the short Season 1 in 2010 and the 8.99 million of Season 2’s March 18, 2012 finale. Demo-wise, Sunday’s TWD is the third worst rating the show has seen, with the 3.0 and the 4.7 for the Seasons 1 & 2 enders delivering lower ratings.

Read the rest of the article at Deadline.