Season 7 for The Walking Dead has been a tumultuous one for the zombie drama. 17 million people tuned in for the seventh season premiere, making it the second highest rated episode in the show’s history.
But after several episodes, the show lost millions upon millions of viewers and ended up with 7 million fewer viewers per episode, which is numbers that have not happened since the show’s third season.
Following a midseason break, The Walking Dead looked like it was going to turn things around and bring back the action that made the show popular. Rick and the gang are back together and ready to fight villainous Negan and his group of cronies. The episode ended up bring 12 million viewers, but just a few episodes later, the show has hit a four-year low point, with 10.16 million viewers.
The show has seen a decline in ratings since the Negan storyline started. In fact, 4 out of the top ten worst-reviewed Walking Dead episodes are in season seven, according to IMDB.
Pinpointing the cause of the problem is hard. Some reports suggested Walking Dead fans planned on boycotting the show after the people found the season 7 premiere offensive. In the episode, several lead characters were executed by a baseball bat. Other than that it is hard to say what is causing the decline in viewership.
The Walking Dead is still one of the most popular shows on television. But, this news comes after the show drew controversy after the actor who plays Negan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, got involved in the middle of a race controversy. Primark stopped the sale of a The Walking Dead T-shirt after people called the shirt racist. Morgan responded by saying “people are stupid.”