'The Walking Dead' Season 6 Ratings Drop Nearly 20%

The Walking Dead Season 6 ratings drop.

Less people are tuning into Rick and the gang this season. According to reports, the season 6 debut of The Walking Dead brought in 14.6 million viewers on Sunday with 9.4 million viewers in the key demographic, according to Nielsen.

While those are still amazing numbers for any show on broadcast or cable nowadays, that’s down 16% and 15% in viewers and the demographic.

That is a drop from the record-breaking Season 5 premiere of the AMC series last year. It is also down from the Season 4 debut in 2013, which had an 8.2 demo rating and 16.1 million total viewers. And according to Variety, things don’t look so good for The Walking Dead, as the zombie thriller will face off against major Sunday Night football games.

Also worth noting as close as this latest TWD victory is, the AMC show did beat SNF five of the eight times they went head to head last season. And, looking at the Sunday time slot fast nationals, one can certainly see where TWD soundly tackled what was by any estimation a very competitive game on SNF. At 8:30 PM, SNF is showing a 6.5 rating in its early minutes, but come 9 PM, and with TWD hitting the air, that result falls fast to a 6.0. By 9:30 PM, SNF is down to a 5.6 and goes further in decline to a 5.3 in the 10 PM half-hour. No surprise SNF sees a small rise to 5.4 once TWD is over at 10:30 PM.

However, Sunday’s debut is the highest rated series of the 2015-2016 TV season so far and it is the third best season opener for The Walking Dead. And DVR numbers have not been taken into affect and last year’s Live+3 numbers increased ratings by 32%.

What do you think? Is The Walking Dead in trouble after dropping in ratings? Share with us your thoughts in the comments below!

‘The Walking Dead’ Season 6 Ratings Drop Nearly 20%

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