‘The Walking Dead’ Season 8 Premiere Ratings, The Results Are In

Television ratings for the Season 8 premiere of the hit AMC series The Walking Dead are now available. While the zombie apocalypse drama is still the highest-rated show on cable and debuted on Sunday night with its 100th episode, the results aren’t exactly stellar.

Nielsen data indicates that 11.4 million total viewers watched the season opener, “Mercy,” with a 5.0 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 age demographic. While a big number given the fragmented nature of the TV universe, last October’s opener drew about 17 million viewers and an 8.4 rating in the under-50 cohort. According to Variety, the numbers indicate that the first Season 8 episode “was down approximately 40 percent in the demo and 33 percent in total viewers season-to-season.”

Sunday night’s installment which featured the beginning of a war between the Rick Grimes’ cohort (the “Rick-tatorship”) and Negan’s criminal crew of Saviors at the Sanctuary also has the dubious distinction of being the third-lowest premiere since The Walking Dead launched, beating out only Seasons 1 and 2.

The premieres for Seasons 5 and 7 were the most successful, garnering 17.29 and 17.03 million viewers, respectively. Comparing Season 8 to Season 7 may be somewhat unfair because last year’s premiere revealed at long last which of the principal cast members were taken out by Negan and Lucille.

When online streaming and DVR time-shifting is factored in, the Season 8 premiere results may experience an uptick.

While AMC and The Walking Dead showrunners might be concerned about the trend, Vulture points that “when you consider the pace of erosion taking place at nearly every network, broadcast and cable, TWD seems to be coming in for a soft landing, ratings-wise.” The AV Club website also notes that “TWD was still the number one show on Sunday night, and the premiere’s ratings were up 5 percent from the average episode of the second half of season seven.”

Interestingly enough perhaps, illegal downloads around the world for Sunday night’s episode also declined year over year, Variety added.

It remains to be seen whether Season 8 will see a continued ratings slump as the subsequent episodes unfold week after week. That said, a tremendous amount of bandwidth has been consumed by fans and former fans in discussing issues with the TWD storyline which, for some, has removed the show from the category of must-see TV. Many have raised questions about the way the series is structured: One or two episodes with a lot of action, followed by a succession of episodes that do little to move the narrative forward and seem like filler in some cases to get to either the mid-season finale or the actual season finale. This includes standalone episodes that focus on one or two characters rather than the ensemble and sometimes consist of flashbacks. The Walking Dead seems to suffer significantly when key characters disappear for weeks on end. There has been consistent chatter that AMC-imposed budgetary limitations may explain the slow pacing over the course of a season.

Then there is the repetitive nature of the events where Rick’s group finds a safe haven and then loses it, and gets separated, as a result of the actions of a combination of bad humans and the undead, and then later reunite. There is also recurring philosophical speechmaking about ethics in the apocalypse. Killing off some of the key players, which is understandable in a show of this nature where tension needs to be maintained, hasn’t helped, however.

The violence with Negan was precipitated by a very bad decision by Rick, which is an entirely separate topic, as are some of the other choices made by the characters. Parenthetically, why didn’t they open fire on Negan as soon as he sauntered onto the balcony?

TWD dedicated the “Mercy” Season 8 premiere episode to the memories of deceased stuntman John Bernecker and movie director George Romero of Night of the Living Dead fame. AMC apparently asked Romero to direct a couple of TWD episodes, but Romero told The Big Issue in 2013 that he demurred.

“Basically it’s just a soap opera with a zombie occasionally. I always used the zombie as a character for satire or a political criticism and I find that missing in what’s happening now,” Romero said about The Walking Dead.

[Featured Image by Gene Page/AMC]