Why No One Should Worry About The Walking Dead’s Ratings

It’s no secret that The Walking Dead has taken a hit in the ratings category throughout its seventh season. What started as the second most watched episode of the entire series has fallen, in six weeks, to numbers as low as some the lowest in Season 3.

Episode 7×06 hauled in 10.4 million viewers. Its almost 7 million less than the number which tuned into the Season 7 premiere — but it’s still a number so impressive that it’s almost scary. Sure, it’s a massive drop from 7×01 to 7×06 but, even so, The Walking Dead is the highest rated show on cable seven years into its seemingly unstoppable run.

Here’s what Season 7 has looked like so far…

• 7×01: 17.03 million
• 7×02: 12.46 million
• 7×03: 11.72 million
• 7×04: 11.40 million
• 7×05: 11.00 million
• 7×06: 10.40 million

Keep in mind, when The Walking Dead ratings were below 10 million in Season 3, the show still spawned five more seasons after it.

Many fans have been turning off the show for a number of reasons in the past month a half according to Internet comment sections.

First of all, a bunch of fans threatened to boycott the show after Season 6 ended with one of the most talked about (and epic) cliffhangers in television history. Obviously, most of them lied as they clearly returned for the Season 7 premiere. However, the Season 7 premiere prompted almost five million fans to fulfill that promise. Some of them claim the episode was too violent while others were simply enfuriated by the loss of their favorite character — either Glenn of Abraham.

Both of those reasons are a prime example of, “Be careful what you wish for,” after months of whining about the cliffhanger, but that’s a story for another time.

Since the premiere, the ratings have steadily declined. It’s acutally expected for the numbers to drop after such a highly anticipated premiere but we’re six weeks in the drops have not started to level out. No episode has had more than or equal to as many viewers as a previous Season 7 episode. It has several fans of the show suddenly worrying about its future.

No one needs to worry about the future of The Walking Dead.

First of all, let’s put this into perspective by comparing The Walking Dead to Fear the Walking Dead. Let’s say The Walking Dead drops so low as 9 million viewers for a single episode — which it very well might with 7×07, at this rate — the number of viewers is still three times as high as the spinoff series. Still, with about 3 to 4 million viewers per week (on a good week), Fear the Walking Dead earned a third season. Talking Dead sometimes hauls in more viewers that, which, by comparison to another popular late night talk show, is more than The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon gets on some nights.

In fact, with 9 million viewers, The Walking Dead will still be by far the top rated cable program on Sunday night. Second place belongs to its after show Talking Dead and third, often times, is claimed by a repeat screening of the same new episode after Talking Dead. Outside of the AMC programming, Bravo’s Real Housewives shows nab a fraction of what The Walking Dead does on Sunday nights.

Furthermore, the frustrations will likely be coming to an end for most fans of The Walking Dead soon. Most of the vocalized complaints have been in choices of dedicating entire episodes to singular groups, such as the Tara-centric Swear episode a week ago or Daryl’s trapped-in-a-cell episode on the third week of the season. Starting with 7×07, The Walking Dead will blend multiple groups into each episode having expanded their world as planned in the first six weeks.

Once audiences have their wish of seeing most of the characters they are heavily invested in on a weekly (rather than bi-weekly or sometimes more) basis, the word of mouth will help mend the shows numbers.

If the numbers are to continuously slip, a change will have to be made creatively, but expect to see the ratings level out with a few peaks and valleys as season premieres and finales will cast a few outliers on the ratings graphs.

Plus, once Ezekiel returns, fans will likely tune in just to see more of the extravagant king — so, The Walking Dead has that in its backpocket.

MORE WALKING DEAD:Major Events Teased In Opening Credits / Danai Gurira On Michonne Filling Key Comic Book Role / New Photos From Sing Me A Song/ What Did Michonne Find? / Austin Nichols Say Spencer Wants To Be A Leader / How Season 7 Could Have Been Better

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. For complete coverage and insider info all season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.