Cable Ratings: The Walking Dead Continues to Drop, Shameless Returns Way Up
Paul Dailly at .Are viewers growing tired of The Walking Dead?
The ratings for The Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 3 are in and they are rather underwhelming. The episode secured 8.5 million viewers and a 3.8 rating.
While this is still a solid figure, it's becoming increasingly apparent that the show is trending downwards. The Walking Dead Season 8 debuted with 11.4 million viewers and a 5.0 rating on October 22.
That figure was down considerably from the 17 million viewers who tuned in for The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 1. Granted, that episode was highly anticipated, but the erosion over the last few weeks has to be a little concerning.
The show is still AMC's highest-rated series by a wide margin. Its closest competitor is Fear the Walking Dead which averaged 2.4 million viewers and a 0.9 rating for its most recent season.
Simply put, the show could drop to the 2 million range and still be safe. It just goes to show how integral the franchise is to AMC. The two top-rated series are from the same franchise.
In any case, it would not be surprising if AMC pulled the trigger on a second spin-off.
Meanwhile, Shameless Season 8 got a good turnout for its premiere. The opening episode managed to pull in 1.9 million viewers and a 0.7 rating.
The total viewer tally was up over 50 percent vs. Shameless Season 7 Episode 1. It will be interesting to see just how long Showtime manages to keep Shameless around.
It is the highest rated show on the network by a wide margin, so it's hard to imagine them wanting to part with it soon. SMILF launched with 0.8 million viewers and a 0.3 rating right after Shameless.
That's a decent figure for the new series. The first episode was online for a few weeks before its premiere, so it will be interesting to see whether it picks up in the coming weeks.
Over to you, TV Fanatics. What do you think of the ratings?
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Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.