Why Delayed Viewing Can't Save 'Walking Dead'

Faithful fans of The Walking Dead are not as concerned as the rest of us about the series' declining ratings. They often cite the millions of viewers who watch each episode in the days after it originally airs as a reason to not be alarmed by the drop in same-day ratings. Those big delayed-viewing numbers might not be the series' salvation, however.

First, the good news. TWD is still the highest-rated scripted TV series among younger viewers. And it still sees a huge surge in viewership during the three-day period after each episode's air date, much more so than most other series.

The bad news is that as same-day ratings have fallen, the series' three-day ratings have fallen, too. TWD is still seeing three-day viewing growth of above 40 percent, but that's been fairly typical for the series. That means that the almost 7 million viewers the series lost between its season premiere and its mid-season finale are not just choosing to delay their viewing of each episode; they are choosing not to watch the episodes at all. They look, at this point, as if they might be gone for good.

Advertisers see another big problem with relying on delayed viewing. Most TWD viewers skip over ads when they watch an episode they've DVRed, and advertisers hate that. They hate it so much that they keep track of ad viewing more closely than they keep track of total viewership or demographic ratings for each episode. And according to the metric that advertisers care about, TWD isn't doing well at all.

There's no way to argue that TWD isn't still more popular than any other scripted series on TV. But there's also no way to argue that, by its own very high standards, the series' seventh season has been anything but immensely disappointing.