Originally posted Monday, February 4, 2019 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Despite slipping ratings, AMC is giving “The Walking Dead” a 10th season.
The apocalyptic drama shot mostly in the Senoia area is now drawing 10 million viewers a week, which still places it ahead of any other cable network show. It’s probably not as popular now as many Netflix shows but we don’t really know Netflix viewership - at least from third party sources.
The show just two years ago was drawing as many as 20 million viewers a week so the drop-off has been alarming.
The renewal was not a surprise. “Walking Dead” creators are trying to turn the franchise into an almost permanent “Star Trek”-like web featuring spin-offs, movies, video games and whatever else they can come up with.
The first half of season nine last fall featured the departure of Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and a new show runner Angela Kang plus the introduction of a new foe in the Whisperers. They wear the skin of dead walkers to disguise themselves.
One of the Whisperers killed the character named Jesus at the end of episode eight late last year.
Season 9 mid-season debut is this Sunday, February 10 at 9 p.m. although AMC Premiere subscribers already have access to it a week early.
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