Despite having one of the biggest twists in the history of the series,The Walking Deadmid-season finale took a pretty big hit in the ratings department, when compared to last year’s mid-season finale. The episode was only up 2 percent overall in the ratings, when compared to last week’s episode.The Walking Dead Season 8 fall finaleis actually the second-lowest in the history of the hit AMC series, trailing only season 2’sPretty Much Dead Already.
When compared toThe Walking DeadSeason 7’s fall finale,The Walking DeadSeason 8 is down 34 percent in the ratings. In recent years, AMC has been losing viewers and the monologue-heavy episode, which revealed that a major character is going to die, didn’t help matters any. The 90-minuteWalking Deadepisode managed a 3.36 among adults 18-49, which is the coveted demographic for shows like this. Still, even with the falling ratings,The Walking Deadis still one of the biggest shows on TV and is in absolutely no danger of being canceled. But AMC definitely needs to pay attention to this downwardWalking Dead ratingstrend.
Warning: spoilers ahead forThe Walking Deadmid-season finale. During the latest episode,Carl Grimeswas in a battle with The Saviors and, after the dust settles from the battle, he reveals that he has a Walker bite on his torso. It’s been confirmed by showrunner Scott M. Gimple that Carl is indeed going to die and that this isn’t some sort of trick. He’s going to be killed off whenThe Walking Deadseason 8 returns on February 25 for its mid-season premiere.
I total, the episodeHow Its Gotta Bepulled in 7.9 million viewers, which is up 5 percent from the previous episodeTime for After, which aired on December 3. Again, that’s still a massive number and the kind of ratings that other shows would kill for. But considering thatChandler Riggs' Carl Grimes, one of just a handful of original characters still on the series, is being killed off, it seems like a twist of that magnitude would bring in more eyeballs. Granted, nobody could have known that’s what AMC was planning. Though, they did tease a very impactful death for the mid-season finale.
Despite the fact that ratings took a hit forThe Walking Dead Season 8so far, things could be looking up when the show comes back in February. Carl’s impending death has been a major topic of conversation and AMC could wind up seeing a huge ratings boost, as fans ofThe Walking Dead, even if they haven’t tuned in regularly for a while, will likely want to tune in to see his final episode. That’s good news for AMC, asDeadlinenotes that the mid-season finale was the third least watched episode of the entireWalking DeadSeason 8 so far.
