The Walking Dead: From 17 Million Viewers To 3 Million – What Happened?

 The Walking Dead used to be the biggest show on TV! It was a juggernaut, reaching over 17 million viewers which was just absolutely insane. Over the years the show has been steadily declining, and the newest season, 10, was the one with the lowest amount of views yet. The Walking Dead has had some episodes this year reach under 3 million views! It’s pulling the same amount of views as a CW show! There’s nothing wrong with CW shows, don’t get me wrong, but come on! The Walking Dead was a global phenomenon so it’s kind of sad to see it dwindle in popularity like this. Still, the show isn’t quite finished yet! The season 10 finale, which adapted the ‘Here’s Negan’ storyline from the comics, was phenomenal. It was one of the best episodes of The Walking Dead we’ve had in a long time. I think the last time I enjoyed an episode that much Rick Grimes was still in the show. But what caused the show’s decline? From 17 million viewers to 3 million?

There has never been a show that’s suffered such a quick decline before, which is pretty sad. It all started around the time Negan was introduced to The Walking Dead. I don’t think it was really Negan that started the decline though. The Walking Dead was going through a particularly bad bout of… let’s call it teasing. You couldn’t go one episode without having some kind of ridiculous cliffhanger happening. It started on the season finale where Negan was introduced. This came after several teases of Glenn dying and even one particularly bad one featuring Negan. For them to then introduce the new villain with no pay-off? Yeah, it wasn’t great.

The second thing that really pushed the decline downwards is when they killed off Carl. This pushed the ratings down towards its second big decline. This probably has something to do with the fact that Carl was needed for the remaining big storylines.

Finally, Rick leaving really was the final nail in the coffin.

The Walking Dead still airs, though! It comes back on AMC this august! Do you still enjoy it yourself? Or have you given it up already?

Alexander Ouellet

Alexander is passionate about everything related to gaming, comics, television, and film. You can usually find him watching some kind of DC show and can also find his writing on Multiversal News, something he’s helping to build.