THE WALKING DEAD Season 9 Premiere Ratings Sucked Big

Well, it was bound to happen and they only have themselves to blame.  The ninth season premiere of The Walking Dead ratings sucked, as they were down by 47% from last season, the lowest since their first season.

So what happened?

Well, one, the last two seasons* (or *both halves of last season... it's hard to distinguish these days) were crap, where 20% of each episode had nothing but facial close ups. Not to mention that the last two seasons* were pretty much nothing but one big, long, drawn out fight in between those stupid ass close ups.

They killed off Carl. Sure AMC, you can try to be shocking audiences with deaths that matter, but you might have picked the wrong death that did matter.

They also ended season eight with that mysterious meeting where Maggie, Daryl and Jesus agreed that they would have to take control of the group from Rick. Seemed ominous... except that even back then, we knew that Laura Cohan and Andrew Lincoln were leaving the show, so that felt like an empty story threat.

And then all the buzz that AMC tried to generate by tossing out about both Lincoln and Cohan leaving is akin to setting up fans for not caring one bit about this season. Not to mention, the last time I checked, when there where was a "hit" series going on, cast don't leave. Unless of course, it's because of the notorious levels of penny pinching that AMC is known for. Or that the cast know something we don't!

And what's with these confusing-as-hell, useless, jump forward looking scenes of happiness with Rick Grimes?

Everything about this show is starting to feel more and more desperate.

Of course AMC is babbling on about how they were up against sports programming for their ninth season premiere, and not to mention how they made the premiere episode 'sign up bait' for their online streaming service, setting sign up records for that platform, which Nielsen does not count.

Ever since their peak premiere episode back in season five, the numbers have been sliding downward, and this pretty much spells a lot out for folks. Fans have lost fan-favorite characters, the last two seasons pretty much sucked, cast that are present are leaving soon...  so what's our point in sticking around?

Not even AMC's bogus boasting over the summer about how they have ten more years of content planned had any impact on fans desire to tune in. In fact, they acted much like fans do when a show keeps running on and on and on with little or no real change. They tuned out.

I doubt even Ryan Hurst showing up as the new bad guy can help this one... he's boarded a sinking ship.

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For now, I'll keep watching because despite their new trick in this season with dialog that alludes to something at the end of the episode or later, despite that big move that Maggie pulled off at the end of the episode, (it's about freaking time), it might get better. But to be honest, if we keep getting episodes where characters use this cheap (lazy) writing trick to continually allude to some mysterious character or situation, well, AMC, you need to pull your heads out of your asses and come up with something better than that basic shtick.

Just saying.

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