AMC: Walking Dead lost viewers because Negan was too “hopeless”

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

AMC's THE WALKING DEAD keeps losing more and more fans as it just keeps going and going and going. The season 10 premiere snagged a series low in the rating department managing to only gather up about 4 million views. And today AMC chief Sarah Barnett admits that it may very well have been Jeffrey Dean Morgan's "hopeless" villain Negan that did the show in.

Barnett says:

It’s true to say that that season with Negan [a mega-villain played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan] became a little too hopeless for audiences. I think that there was creative intention behind it that was really smart and thoughtful, but I think it probably pushed people to a place where it was a lot to take at a time when maybe people just didn’t want to see that.

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Are YOU still watching THE WALKING DEAD? Let us know below! In the meantime, Season 10 has the following synopsis: 

The Walking Dead is a story that started 10 years ago with one man trying to find his family. That family grew and gradually communities took shape. They fought and survived, thrived and gave birth to a new generation. It is a tale of humankind and there are more stories to tell. It is now Spring, a few months after the end of Season 9, when our group of survivors dared to cross into Whisperer territory during the harsh winter. The collected communities are still dealing with the after effects of Alpha’s horrific display of power, reluctantly respecting the new borderlines being imposed on them, all while organizing themselves into a militia-style fighting force, preparing for a battle that may be unavoidable. But the Whisperers are a threat unlike any they have ever faced. Backed by a massive horde of the dead it is seemingly a fight they cannot win. The question of what to do and the fear it breeds will infect the communities and give rise to paranoia, propaganda, secret agendas, and infighting that will test them as individuals and as a society. The very idea of whether civilization can survive in a world filled with the dead hangs in the balance.

RELATED: RICK GRIMES MOVIE WILL TAKE THE WALKING DEAD IN WILD NEW DIRECTIONS

Scott Gimple and AMC are planning more THE WALKING DEAD in the future with more FEAR THE WALKING DEAD, more THE WALKING DEAD: WORLD BEYOND, and an unspecified number of limited event series – which TWD chief content officer teases will bring back dead characters. As you might imagine, I hope they bring back Shane. Are you excited about these planned limited event series? Which dead characters would YOU like to see return? Let us know below! In the meantime, mark your calendars as THE WALKING DEAD returns for the rest of season 10 on February 23, 2020.