'Walking Dead' Limps Toward Mid-Season Finale

For the first time this season, the most recent episode of The Walking Dead didn't experience a ratings decline from the previous episode. That's the good news. The bad news is that this week's ratings were virtually unchanged from last week's season-low marks, and the series doesn't have much momentum going into next week's mid-season finale.

This week's episode, titled "Sing Me a Song," nailed down a 4.95 rating in the 18-49 age demographic. That's up just one percent from last week's 4.9 rating. Total viewership was up a similar margin, with 10.48 million viewers compared to last week's 10.4 million. The ratings end a consistent week-to-week drop since the season premiere in October.

The episode's ratings remain at a level not seen since 2012, however. The series has established a pattern in previous seasons of rising ratings as it approaches its mid-season hiatus, but this season's downward ratings trend is making a big turn-around for next week's episode seem unlikely.

On the bright side, "Sing Me a Song" got a little more critical love than recent episodes have, with nearly three out of four critics finding some nice things to say about the episode.

After next week's episode, TWD will go dormant until February 2017.