The Season 9 finale of “The Walking Dead” was the lowest-rated finale the show has ever had.
In the Nielsen Live+Same Day ratings, Sunday’s finale averaged a 1.9 rating in adults 18-49 and 5 million viewers. In fairness, that is up over 20% in both measures compared to last week’s episode and is in line with this season’s Live+Same Day average.
However, it is down approximately 44% in the key demo and 37% in total viewers compared to the Season 8 finale (3.4 rating, 7.9 million viewers). The series is also down over 30% in both measures in Live+Same Day compared to last season’s average.
Nevertheless, “The Walking Dead” has seen an average Live+3 growth of 52% in the demo and 47% in total viewers for the first seven episodes of the second half of the season for which data is available. That is the highest rates of time-shifted viewing ever for the series. It is also still the highest-rated show on cable and one of the highest-rated scripted shows in all of television.
The show’s season finales, ranked by Live+Same Day demo rating, are as follows:
- 8.2, 15.8 million (Season 5)
- 8.0 rating, 15.7 million (Season 4)
- 6.9 rating, 18 million (Season 6)
- 6.4, 12.4 million (Season 3)
- 5.4 rating,11.3 million (Season 7)
- 4.7, 9 million (Season 2)
- 3.4 rating, 7.9 million (Season 8)
- 3.0 rating, 6 million (Season 1)
- 1.9 rating, 5 million (Season 9)