Walking Dead Ratings Slip Again

The Walking Dead is still one of the highest-rated shows on television, but the internet has been abuzz since the series' sixth season began to turn in ratings numbers that weren't quite up to the stellar standards set during previous seasons. The ratings trend continued this week, making everyone with an opinion throw in their two cents about what's going on.

Ratings for the premiere episode of the sixth season were down about 15% from the record-breaking ratings of the season 5 premiere. That in itself didn't seem like a big deal, but when the second episode of season 6 fell another 16% percent, skittish financial markets, always quick to panic, took notice, and AMC's stock price dropped.

Since then, the series' ratings had stabilized, and optmistic fans blamed the relatively low numbers on especially tough competition from marquee NFL games and Major League Baseball play-off and World Series games. This week, however, ratings for the fifth episode dropped another 6% from last week's numbers, and there was no baseball to pin it on.

It might seem silly to lament ratings numbers that are still, by most measures astronomical, but no one likes to see a downward trend, especially when you might expect viewers to be tuning in in record numbers to find out what really happened to Glenn.