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Gene Page/AMC(NEW YORK) -- Despite talk from some longtime fans that the show is showing new life this season, ratings for AMC's The Walking Dead's midseason finale don't seem to back that up. Only 5.1 million people watched Sunday night's show. ...

Fading signs of life in ‘The Walking Dead’ midseason finale ratings

Gene Page/AMC(NEW YORK) — Despite talk from some longtime fans that the show is showing new life this season, ratings for AMC’s The Walking Dead‘s midseason finale don’t seem to back that up.

Only 5.1 million people watched Sunday night’s show.  That may not look bad on its face, but it’s a drop of 2.8 million people compared to how many watched year’s midseason finale, which itself showed a drop of 2.7 million from 2016’s.  Sunday’s show is also the lowest-rated midseason finale of The Walking Dead’s nine seasons.  Season one, which lasted just six episodes, didn’t have a midseason finale.

The highest-rated midseason finale for The Walking Dead remains the 14.8 million people who watched season five’s.

The Walking Dead star Andrew Lincoln, who played Rick Grimes since the show’s start, left the show four weeks ago, but given the downward midseason audience trend over the years it appears, at least on the surface, that his absence hasn’t played a major role in this year’s low numbers.

Even with the bad news, The Walking Dead was still the highest-rated show on cable Sunday night, and remains the most-watched show on cable overall.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC in February.

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