Hoping to reinvent the long-running zombie show with a time-jump, a whole host of new characters and the departure of fan-favorites like Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan, The Walking Dead is stumbling at the first hurdle. The AMC series’ revamped Season 9 just hit a new series low for ratings.
Variety reports that October 14’s “The Bridge” drew a disappointing Neilsen rating of 2.0 in the key 18-49 demographic and just 4.9 million viewers in the Live+Same Day numbers. To put this into context, The Walking Dead‘s previous demographic low was 2.4 back in Season 1.
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Worryingly, the 4.9 million viewers is only just ahead of Season 1’s 4.7 million. “The Bridge” also managed to drop 20% of its audience from the Season 9 premiere.
New showrunner Angela Kang proved there’s still life in The Walking Dead storywise with the first two episodes of Season 9, but there’s no escaping the network numbers. Season 9’s premiere pulled in 6.08 million viewers, which is a lot less than the Season 8 finale, and miles away from the 11.44 million who tuned in for the Season 8 premiere.
Added to this, both The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead have a history of losing viewers after a big character death. After the Season 7 premiere brutally offed Glenn and Abraham, The Walking Dead dropped from 17 million to 12.5 viewers. The show also slumped from 8.3 million to 6.82 million following Carl’s death, and with The Walking Dead facing the possibility of Rick Grimes becoming its biggest death ever, one has to wonder where the shows numbers will go once he’s gone.
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Airing Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC, The Walking Dead stars Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Lauren Cohan, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Lennie James, Alanna Masterson, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.