AMC's "The Walking Dead" season 8 premiered on Oct. 22, and it is feared that the ratings project how fans are starting to lose interest in the series.
Nielsen Live+Same Day data revealed that the season premiere got an average rating of 5.0 rating in adults and had a total of 11.4 million viewers on Sunday night, making it the third-lowest rating season premiere of "The Walking Dead" franchise's history. It also means that the season 8 premiere went down to 40% in rating compared to the season 7's.
On the contrary, Vulture said that the success of the current season cannot be identified by the viewership figures on its premiere; so, there is no need to worry about "The Walking Dead" season 8 not being able to pull through a fruitful season in comparison to its preceding seasons given that there might be surprises awaiting its audience.
For one, Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) sparing Negan's (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) life instead of killing him when they met face-to-face lit up theories among "The Walking Dead," with them "possibly" being allies to bring the Ric Grime's (Andrew Lincoln) "Rictatorship" down, This tops everything off, creating so much frustration and anxiety among the fans, and a thread on Twitter is proof that "The Walking Dead" followers are furious.
Next is the fact that there is now combined forces of Alexandria, Hilltop and the Kingdom going against Negan and his gang. So, this season might be the right time to use "Lucille" to smash this villain's head off, exactly how he executed Abraham and Glen. Maggie has also been "eternally" pregnant for the past seasons of "The Walking Dead" and in season 8, fans might finally get to see how Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Glenn's (Steven Yeun) offspring would look like — or at least know when the woman is due.
That being said, "The Walking Dead" season 8 might have failed to get the targeted figures for its season premiere, but that does not mean there's nothing to watch out for.
"The Walking Dead" season 8 airs every Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC.
