Walking Dead Season 8 Premiere Receives Worst Ratings Since Season 3

Maybe it's the shift toward streaming services over traditional programming. Perhaps it's because people are too busy watching Stranger Things. Or could it be that people are just getting sick of zombies?

Whatever the reason may be, the fact remains that the season eight premiere of AMC drama The Walking Dead received the worst premiere ratings since the show's third season.

Credit: AMC

Episode one, season eight, which also happens to be the 100^th instalment of the hit series managed to draw in just two thirds of the viewers it had when the first episode of season seven aired.

What's even worse, it lost 40 percent of the highly-valued 18-49 demographic.

According to Variety, this past weekend's season premiere, "Mercy," drew just 11.4 million viewers.

That's the lowest since season three, where the first episode pulled in 10.86 million viewers all the way back in October 2012.

However, it's not all doom and gloom. The show still boasted the highest viewing figures that night. Not bad going for an eight-year-old show, working in such a played-out genre.

Credit: AMC

Speaking on how he manages to keep the show fresh, executive producer and director Greg Nicotero, told Virgin Media: "Back when we started in 2010 we were just excited about making this little show, but we have an obligation to keep it fresh.

"If it stays the same all the time, people would get tired of it. So it's up to us to introduce new worlds and new characters.

Credit: AMC

"The whole show is about preserving humanity, and that's what the show has done so well. Even back in the first couple of seasons it was about what you're willing to do to live and how our humanity defines us.

"What makes it work is the attention to detail. It's just about keeping it original and finding new and interesting ways to make it work. It's exciting to be able to take things we already know and then elevate them. Scott Gimple, who's our showrunner, will attest to the fact that it's all about the detail."

Season 8 of The Walking Dead is being aired on FOX, the global entertainment channel. You can also catch it on NOW TV.

Featured Image Credit: AMC

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.