‘The Walking Dead’ slumps to worst audience ratings in five years (Report)

The Walking Dead has suffered its worst US ratings in over five years.

The return of the AMC show hit screens late last month, with the latest episode (which aired on Sunday, October 29) bringing back one character who hadn’t appeared in The Walking Dead since its first season aired back in 2010.

That episode – The Damned – has unfortunately been the victim of The Walking Dead‘s lowest TV ratings in the US in over five years, with the episode picking up just 8.92 million viewers on Sunday night (via Deadline).

That figure is just below the 8.99 million viewers who watched The Walking Dead‘s second season finale Beside The Dying Fire in March 2012, and is only 820,000 viewers above the next lowest rating: 2012’s Nebraska, which drew 8.10 million viewers.

Season eight’s premiere episode Mercy – which was also The Walking Dead‘s 100th episode – was also significantly down in terms of ratings when compared with the seventh season premiere The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be, which drew 17.03 million viewers in October 2016. Mercy attracted just 11.4 million viewers in the US on October 22.

Walking Dead star Andrew Lincoln, meanwhile, hinted prior to the eighth season premiere that his character Rick is “willing to die” in order to defeat the show’s current villain Negan.