‘The Walking Dead’ Season 9 Ratings: Here’s How The Show Is Faring Without Rick Grimes

Season 9 of AMC’s The Walking Dead has had a lower than normal viewership. While the numbers have been falling for a while now, the current season has been hitting some all-time lows. However, with the news that Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) only had a couple of episodes left, ratings started to rise again as fans returned to see the conclusion of Rick’s journey. But, have those viewers stayed around to see what happened after Rick left?

SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses Episode 6 (titled “Who Are You Now?”) of AMC’s The Walking Dead Season 9. Please proceed with caution if you have not yet viewed this episode and wish to avoid spoilers.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, ratings for Season 9 of The Walking Dead have hit lows not seen since Season 1 of the zombie apocalypse series. However, the decline has been occurring for a while now.

But then, with the news of Rick Grimes’ departure, things started to pick up again. The last three episodes’ viewership has improved slightly as fans returned to see what happened to Rick. Then, in Episode 5 of The Walking Dead Season 9, Rick’s final episode revealed that the character nearly died before being whisked away in a helicopter. While alive, he is not returning to the TV series, so fans will have to tune into the trio of Walking Dead movies AMC is planning in order to find out more about Rick.

Having Rick survive his final episode had some fans annoyed because they were anticipating the death of Rick Grimes. However, ratings have shown that while some fans were upset with the outcome, many still tuned in to watch Episode 6.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, numbers dropped slightly between Episodes 5 and 6. However, these figures were considered to be negligible. Nearly 5.4 million viewers tuned in to watch the very first episode after Rick’s departure. This was down nearly 1 percent from last week’s episode of The Walking Dead. However, as Digital Spy points out, the key demographic group of 25-54-year-olds remained steady with 3.1 million viewers.

Now, all that remains to be seen is whether this returning audience will stick around to find out more about the new groups or whether Season 9 will start to decline in viewership once more.

Season 9 of The Walking Dead returns to AMC with Episode 7, titled “Stradivarius,” on Sunday, November 18. AMC has released the following synopsis for this episode.

“Carol seeks out an old friend living alone in a wilderness teeming with walkers; survivors make the perilous trek to a new home.”