The final episode of The Walking Dead was a ratings win for AMC…even if ratings were far below what they were at the show’s peak.
Just over a week ago, on November 20, The Walking Dead ended forever. It still feels weird to type that. The show has been on the air for so long, I’m honestly not sure what to do with myself now that the series finale has come and gone. Maybe watch one of the 30,000 spinoffs AMC has cooking?
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The finale, “Rest in Peace,” was a hit for AMC in general and the network’s streaming service AMC+ in particular. According to Variety, November 20 was the service’s biggest day ever, and “Rest in Peace” is the most-watched episode of television on the platform. Of course, AMC+ has only been around since October of 2020, so there isn’t a ton to compare this to, but still: good for them.
The linear ratings weren’t bad, either. The series finale averaged 3.1 million total viewers, up 36% from the penultimate episode the week prior. The caveat here is that, when the show was at its height — around season 6 or show — every episode was drawing numbers far in excess of that, but you’ve gotta take wins where you can get them.
AMC executive Dan McDermott is taking that advice to heart. “What a great conclusion to the ‘zombie show’ that kicked off on Halloween night in 2010 and went on to become the most successful series in the history of cable television,” he said in a statement. “To celebrate this extraordinary series for more than three hours at a live event with thousands of the fans who have driven this series since the beginning was a perfect way to end the flagship series while, at the same time, sharing our collective excitement for the stories and worlds yet to be explored in this growing and vibrant franchise.”
There were “more than three hours” of entertainment because “Rest in Peace” was 90 minutes long and was followed by an episode of the chat show The Talking Dead. As for the “growing” franchise, there’s a lot more Walking Dead stuff headed our way, ready or not:
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