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‘The Walking Dead’ Season 7: Negan TV Portrayal From Comics Slack AMC Ratings?

By Tony Smejek
Published on: 06:49 PST, Feb 15, 2017

The Walking Dead Season 7 had dropped in viewership since its premiere debuting Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan. It had a slight rise in viewership come Episode 9, but will Episode 10 garner some traction and hopefully build its viewership more as it continues towards the season finale?

The ratings as a whole are still pretty good, though, according to the Atlantic, who cites Negan to be the catalyst of the show’s performance. There was a 40 percent slide in ratings during Season 7, but AMC is still keeping it rolling as there’s plenty of content that can be delved into from the Robert Kirkman creation. The Atlantic had mentioned Negan having been a “narrative drag” on the AMC TV show since his appearance in episode one of season seven.

However, will there ever come a stopping point as some may not have the patience to further explore the universe of The Walking Dead? A niche fan base may still be highly into it, but some viewers have claimed the series tends to crawl along until their inevitable mid-season/season finales. It seems only at the juncture between series is when viewership may rise as there is a concern how this “Rise Up” movement against the Saviors will turn out.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan had already announced he’ll be in The Walking Dead’s season eight and was pretty candid on that, according to Us via The Howard Stern Show.

“I know I will be on board for season 8. The next two, I’m really big in,” the Good Wife alum, 50, said. “I’m f**king heavy in those.”

New Storytelling Approach To Bring Back Old Ways

The Walking Dead episode nine premiere pushed the “Rise Up” movement in its marketing and with this show it shows Rick Grimes back to his usual stronger self as seen in a long series of earlier seasons. He’s been attempting to recruit the people of The Kingdom and Hilltop Colony, the latter of which Gregory had refused, but the colonists are still up for the fight against Negan’s Saviors.

Then there is that wide grin in Rick’s face when he comes across a large group of colonist living between piles of junk as they were heavily armed, so there’s that to consider. The Atlantic touted the mid-season premiere episode as in a sort of “panic” to get Rick’s group back in business to the familiar ways.

“But in its return on Sunday night, there was a palpable sense of panic to the episode—a promise to get things back on the right track after a year of sadistic misery. The problem is that new storytelling approach may well end up feeling just as dull and predictable.”

The Negan Show Took Over Too Much?

The Walking Dead villain, Negan, also doesn’t seem to translate well regarding his presence to the TV audience, according to The Atlantic and it seems apparently the villain is quite memorable in the comics version who is “much discussed, rarely seen, and brutally memorable every time he shows up.”

The Jeffrey Dean Morgan portrayal, not so much. Somehow it’s not seeming to translate in the same fashion, and hopefully, AMC will get back on the hype train come season eight. It’s turning into “The Negan Show, ” and even Morgan said it himself during an interview. He mentions how Negan has “taken over” and “flexing his muscle” at this point and was cited saying that it’s a “departure from what you know and love about The Walking Dead.”

Did Jeffrey know something fans did not or was this just a coincidence? He did prove himself right with that statement per the ratings?

Morgan then mentioned the mid-season seven’s future as more of a “we’ll see what happens” situation.

Well right now things are getting started, and it looks like fans will “see what happens.”

AMC’s The Walking Dead airs every Sunday night at 9 p.m. EST.

[Featured Image by Gene Page/AMC]

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