'The Walking Dead' Season 8 Premiere Set To Break A Ratings Record
The Walking Dead returns this fall, to a milestone episode count but also with the opportunity to [...]
Peaks and Valleys
Throughout Season 7, The Walking Dead endured peaks and valleys similar to each season before it. The premieres, midseason premieres, midseason finales, and finales always see a bump in the ratings.
When the series teases milestone events or major plot moments, the numbers tend to jump even higher. Aside from the example of Negan's introduction and kills being revealed, the Season 5 finale directly followed the group's entrapment in a Terminus train car -- earning the record ratings before seeing a valley until the Season 5 midseason finale and premiere episodes saw considerable spikes.
Here are the ratings as they went throughout Season 7...
- 7x01: 17.03 million
- 7x02: 12.46 million
- 7x03: 11.72 million
- 7x04: 11.40 million
- 7x05: 11.00 million
- 7x06: 10.40 million
- 7x07: 10.48 million
- 7x08: 10.58 million
- 7x09: 12 million
- 7x10: 11.08 million
- 7x11: 10.42 million
- 7x12: 10.16 million
- 7x13: 10.68 million
- 7x14: 10.32 million
- 7x15: 10.54 million
- 7x16: 11.3 million
So, can The Walking Dead top 17.3 million viewers on October 22?
prevnextA Record In Sight
The safe bet, based on buzz for the series right now, is that The Walking Dead's Season 8 premiere will not top that of Season 5 (or Season 7, for that matter).
A near seven million viewer rise from finale to premiere would be an uncanny burst in eyeballs glued to AMC on a Sunday night from April 2 to October 22. Such growth would be nearly double the show's biggest episode-to-episode gain which came between the Season 4 midseason finale and premiere, which landed just shy of a four million viewer increase with 3.71 million more people tuning in for the midseason premiere.
A very obtainable 15 million total viewers for the Season 8 premiere would do the trick.
Still, the positive response to the action-packed San Diego Comic Con trailer and its mind-blowing final moments are a good sign for AMC's flagship series which could use some good news after a summer plagued with lawsuit news and an on-set injury leading to the loss of a stuntman.
All things considered, The Walking Dead most likely won't post a ratings number larger than 17 million viewers but has an opportunity to break its record of increased viewership on an episode-to-episode basis. The show will easily eclipse the just over 11 million viewers who watched the Season 7 finale, but the question is: by how much?
prevnextMore Walking Dead
The Walking Dead's sibling series Fear the Walking Dead returns September 10th. The Walking Dead will return for its eighth season on October 22, 2017. The Season Eight premiere will mark 100 episodes overall for the popular AMC series. For complete coverage and insider info all season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.
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