AMC's post-apocalyptic series "The Walking Dead" might have just returned for its eighth season, but recent ratings showed that lesser people are hooked to the show.
TV by the Numbers reported that "The Walking Dead's" season 8 premiere on Sunday, Oct. 22, was the lowest rating for all the premieres since season 2. This season's opening episode garnered a 5.0 rating, a far cry from season 7's premiere, which got a whopping 8.4 rating.
The season 8's first episode only garnered 11.4 million 18-49 viewing adults, while season 7's was watched by 16.4 million viewers of the same age range. Although this was the case, "The Walking Dead" had still beaten other cable shows by a wide lead. Following the zombie-themed series was "Monday Night Football" on ESPN, with a 2.9 rating.
The drop in ratings translated into the dip in the number of people who downloaded copies of "The Walking Dead" season 8 premiere. Texcipio, a provider of pirated data, revealed that aside from the show's low ratings, there were lesser people who downloaded the episode. Season 7's premiere, titled "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be," aired on Oct. 24, 2016, had 1,330,718 downloads, while the latest season opener, titled "Mercy," had 774,685. The bulk of this year's stats came from Brazil, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
There had been reports attributing the lack of interest on the show to the death of two fan-favorite characters, who were killed in season 7 premiere of "The Walking Dead." The characters were Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), who were mercilessly killed using Lucille, Negan's (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) barbed wire covered bat.
Season 6's finale left one of the biggest cliffhangers of the show when Rick Grime's (Andrew Lincoln) team had fallen captive to Negan, who was choosing which person to kill in the last scene of the finale.
"The Walking Dead" season 8 airs every Sunday, at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC.
