'Walking Dead' Ratings Continue to Slip

Did The Walking Dead jump the shark with its gory season-seven premiere? Evidence is mounting that at least some viewers are losing interest in the series as the current season wears on, but TWD remains the biggest series on cable TV.

Last week, we suggested that the ratings dip between TWD's first and second episodes of the season could be due to the fact that episode two was competing with a very highly-rated World Series game. But the ratings drop held up even when delayed viewing was taken into account, suggesting that about 20 percent of the audience from the premiere decided they weren't into episode two, baseball game or not.

The bad news continued with last Sunday's episode three, when there was no high-profile competition to blame. The episode was still the highest-rated program on cable, but its ratings fell by about 7 percent in the 18-49 age demographic compared to the week before. Compared to the season premiere, the episode was down by a third among younger viewers.

Even more concerning is that the total same-day viewership for episode three was the lowest of any episode in the series since the middle of season four, way back in 2013. Should the series' ratings slip much further, they'll flirt with the levels of the first three seasons, when TWD was merely a popular cable show rather than a must-watch phenonenon.