The Walking Dead Ratings Fall to Record Low But Still Claim No. 1 Spot on Cable TV

For the third time in as many weeks, AMC's The Walking Dead has dropped to another series low in [...]

For the third time in as many weeks, AMC's The Walking Dead has dropped to another series low in the ratings. It remains the most-watched cable TV series on Sunday nights, which is certainly a silver lining for the zombie drama, but the decline isn't showing any signs of stopping any time soon. The ratings have been steadily falling for the past couple of seasons but the first three episodes of Season 10 have each hit new series lows for The Walking Dead.

Sunday night's new episode, "Ghosts," saw just 3.48 million people tune in to the live broadcast, earning just a 1.2 rating in the coveted 18-49 demographic. That's down from the 1.3 rating delivered with last Sunday's episode. The Season 10 premiere, "The Calm Before," had 4 million live viewers and a 1.4 demo rating.

Despite the low ratings of the series, the overall Walking Dead Universe is still moving forward with more projects than ever before. The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead have both been renewed for additional seasons in 2020, and AMC has ordered a third series set in the same world, which will also arrive on the cable network next year. There is also at least one feature film in the works which will follow Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes after his departure from the main series.

The third Walking Dead series follows a group of young people who have grown up in the zombie apocalypse, setting a much different tone than its predecessors.

"With that show, the third show, it is less about format and it is much more about the perspective that we have," Walking Dead chief creative officer Scott Gimple told THR. "It's about the two sisters at the lead of the show. It's about their age and their friends' age that are going along with them. The show has, in some ways, a different mythology set in the world. It is still set in the same world, but the things that they're tied up in are very different than the things that the other shows have featured and the lives that we've seen these other characters lead. I don't mean that they simply start in a settled place but the system that they're under and the system that they're tied into and trying to get out of is so different from anything we've seen. And it gives this show, with its very young perspective, a very different feel. The things that they're tied up in, we have not seen on the other shows."

Do you think the low ratings are spelling trouble for the future of The Walking Dead? Could the new series provide a boost? Let us know in the comments!

New episodes of The Walking Dead air on Sunday nights at 9pm ET on AMC.

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