The seventh season of AMC’s The Walking Dead started strong, with a premiere that pulled in the second-highest numbers for the zombie show ever. Viewership dropped off after that, however. The show returned for the second half of Season 7 on Sunday night and now we know how it fared.
According to Deadline, Sunday’s episode,”Rock In The Road,” picked up 12 million viewers; 7.3 million of them were in the 18-49 demographic, giving the show a 5.7 rating. Viewership is up 13 percent compared to December 2016’s mid-season finale.
This is the first time that a Walking Dead midseason return has risen since Season 4, in 2014. However, the 12 million number is down 13 percent compared to the Season 6 mid-season return in February 2016. Last year, the Grammys took place on a Monday, while this year they were held on a Sunday, competing directly with “Rock In The Road.”
Also note that these numbers are only preliminary. AMC will announce how the show performed with live/same-day figures and the three days after combined later this week.
An eighth season of The Walking Dead is on the way, scheduled to start in late 2017 with the show’s 100th episode. Showrunner Scott Gimple is coming back for the new season.