'Walking Dead' Ratings Return to Five-Year Lows

For a moment, it looked as if The Walking Dead might have halted its ratings slide. But this week's episode came very close to matching the season-low ratings mark set during the first half of the seventh season. That low point is on a par for ratings numbers that TWD hadn't previously seen since 2012.

This week's episode drew 10.42 million total viewers, putting it in a virtual tie with the season's sixth episode, which attracted 10.40 million viewers. That episode was the lowest-rated of the season and the series' lowest-rated episode since the fifth episode of season three.

TWD had seen something of a ratings bounce with the premiere of the second half of this season, which drew 12 million viewers. The next episode, however, dropped to 11.08 million. This week's decline put the bar at the previously set season-low point. Given that no episode this season has yet seen a ratings gain from week to week (the only gain spanned the mid-season hiatus), the chance of setting yet another low next week seems good.

TWD only has wiggle room of about a million viewers if it hopes to avoid sinking to season-two-level ratings. Right now, the season-seven average rating is 11.7 million viewers; if you strip out the high (and so far totally unmatched) ratings of the season premiere, the average falls to 11.16. Even the higher of those numbers is the lowest average since season three. By comparison, season five averaged 14.38 million viewers.