The Walking Dead will return to AMC at the end of February

As I expressed in my review of The Walking Dead's season 8 midseason finale, which aired on AMC this past Sunday, I'm feeling pretty disappointed with the show these days. It seems tired, the quality of the storytelling has dipped significantly, bad decisions are being made… I really think it's time for the network to consider shaking up the creative team. Showrunner Scott M. Gimple has been in charge since season 4, and it would be easy to understand if running a zombie show for five years would burn a person out and cause them to run out of ideas.

Whatever the case, the thrill is gone and The Walking Dead is clearly in desperate need of some fresh perspective behind the scenes. 

I was barely able to connect with anything in the first half of season 8, but I'll still be tuning in for the second half… and I'll keep hoping that the show will improve and halt the decline it's been in. I'm sure AMC would like to see the ratings improve – this midseason finale was the lowest rated midseason finale in the show's history. 

Deadline reports: 

…the 90-minute December 10 episode snagged a 3.36 among adults 18-49 and dipped 4% below the previous fall finale low of November 27, 2011. That Season 2 “Pretty Much Dead Already” episode was actually the first fall finale of TWD as Season 1 only ran six episodes and ended on December 5, 2010. The Season 1 “TS-19” finale drew a 3.0 rating in the demo and 5.97 million viewers.

Year-to-year, the Season 8 TWD fall finale was a harsh down 34% from the Season 7 “Swear” episode of November 27, 2016. To add a bit of perspective, that Season 7 fall finale was the worst TWD had done since the Season 2 fall finale. To add further perspective, down from the Season 8 average, this year’s fall finale was the second lowest demo result of Season 8 so far and the third least watched.

Viewershipwise, this year’s fall finale pulled in an audience of 7.9 million. That’s up 5% from the December 3 “Time for After” episode but down 25% from the Season 7 midseason ender. While topping the 6.62 million who watched the Season 2 fall finale in total sets of eyeballs, the Season 8 midseason ender fell 24% from the Season 3 fall finale of November 25, 2012. That “Made To Suffer” episode held the dubious second least watched fall finale title.

With 7.9 million viewers tuning in, The Walking Dead is still in good shape, but the show could be a whole lot better. New additions to the creative team who can bring fresh, energetic, inspired ideas to the table would certainly help.

AMC has announced that The Walking Dead will be returning to the airwaves with its season 8 midseason premiere on February 25th. That episode will bring resolution to the midseason finale's "shocking final moment", one of the worst decisions ever made on this show.

SPOILER clip: