Did One Gruesome Walking Dead Episode Cause Fans to Flee?

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Summary

  • The decline in viewership of The Walking Dead began around the time of the Season 7 premiere in 2016.
  • Fans believe the violent deaths of Abraham and Glenn in Season 7’s premiere led to a dramatic exodus of viewers.
  • Controversial storytelling choices like cliffhangers negatively impacted audience investment, despite the show running for 11 seasons.

Few TV shows have captivated viewers as much as AMC’s post-apocalyptic series, The Walking Dead, which ruled Sunday nights for years. However, despite its early popularity, the program experienced a significant drop in audience, becoming noticeably less popular starting from the Season 7 premiere in 2016. Many fans believe that a specific episode marked the beginning of this decline, but what factors ultimately led to such a substantial loss of viewers?

As Season 6 of “The Walking Dead” came to a close with the episode “Last Day on Earth”, the show remained a dominant force in television ratings, but it had begun to exhibit indications of viewer exhaustion. The arrival of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan, one of the series’ most notorious villains, generated much excitement. However, the season concluded with a contentious cliffhanger—Negan brandishing his bat, Lucille, over an unidentified victim, leaving viewers in suspense for six grueling months to discover which character met their end.

In a Reddit conversation, it’s stated that numerous viewers feel the Season 7 premiere, titled “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be“, is the reason the show lost a significant portion of its audience. User Luke117B defended this episode, calling it a “goddamn masterpiece”. He further mentioned that fans deserted the series en masse after both “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be” and another episode, “Last Day On Earth“. The return of Season 7 with “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be” revealed an answer to a cliffhanger that was one of the most intense sequences ever shown on television. This episode depicted the gruesome deaths of Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Glenn (Steven Yeun), with many fans commenting that the violence was exceptionally graphic, even by “The Walking Dead” standards.

Was Violence The Reason Fans Abandoned The Walking Dead?

In contrast, other viewers believed that it wasn’t the actual violence that led to low ratings, but rather the prolonged tension. One fan commented, “The cliffhanger was brutal, particularly after the Glenn fake death incident from earlier seasons.” Another shared similar thoughts, labeling the cliffhanger as “manipulative,” implying that if the end of Season 7, Episode 1 had been the season 6 finale, it would have been more satisfying.

The debates over these episodes and subsequent character deaths, such as Chandler Riggs’ Carl, signaled a downturn for The Walking Dead. Despite the series lasting an entire eleven seasons, it failed to recapture its initial audience following this period. The dwindling viewership after the Season 7 premiere implies that the show’s narrative decisions, particularly in managing significant events, had long-term effects on viewer engagement.

Fundamentally, this instance in the chronicles of ‘The Walking Dead’ underscores the fine line between crafting gripping, emotionally impactful narratives and maintaining viewer trust. The treatment of the Season 6 cliffhanger and the subsequent emotional turmoil it caused has been a point of contention for many viewers, who felt overwhelmed. Yet, even with the main series concluding in 2022, the ‘Walking Dead’ universe continues to thrive through numerous spin-offs such as ‘Fear the Walking Dead’, ‘The Walking Dead: World Beyond’, ‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’, and ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’. The latter is set to return for its third season in 2025.

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2025-02-13 17:04