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JDM was nominated for a Critics' Choice award (believe it or not)...

2016 Critics' Choice Awards TV Nominations: The Complete List
by ZACH JOHNSON | Mon, Nov 14, 2016 11:00 AM
http://www.eonline.com/news/809137/2016-critics-choice-awards-tv-nominations-the-complete-list

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BEST GUEST PERFORMER IN A DRAMA SERIES
Mahershala Ali, House of Cards
Lisa Bonet, Ray Donovan
Ellen Burstyn, House of Cards
Michael J. Fox, The Good Wife
Jared Harris, The Crown
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, The Walking Dead

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The hype over Negan is more interesting than the character and portrayal.   I can name a dozen actors  who deserved to be honored over JDM.  Not to be gross, but the guy playing Simon is sliding his dick down JDMs throat so far.  

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8 hours ago, tv echo said:

Ratings for this week's TWD episode (7x06-Swear) were 4.9 demo and 10.40 total viewers...
http://www.spoilertv.com/2016/11/final-adjusted-tv-ratings-for-sunday_30.html 

Season 7 so far:

7x01 - 8.4 and 17.03
7x02 - 6.1 and 12.46
7x03 - 5.7 and 11.72
7x04 - 5.4 and 11.40
7x05 - 5.2 and 11.00
7x06 - 4.9 and 10.40

Yikes those demos! Even I didn't anticipate this kind of constant decline. AMC must be freaking out. This is millions of dollars of ad revenue lost.

Edited by SimoneS
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7 hours ago, tv echo said:

Ratings for this week's TWD episode (7x06-Swear) were 4.9 demo and 10.40 total viewers...
http://www.spoilertv.com/2016/11/final-adjusted-tv-ratings-for-sunday_30.html 

Season 7 so far:

7x01 - 8.4 and 17.03
7x02 - 6.1 and 12.46
7x03 - 5.7 and 11.72
7x04 - 5.4 and 11.40
7x05 - 5.2 and 11.00
7x06 - 4.9 and 10.40

Sweet! I'm glad they're finally getting their come-upance ratings-wise for the craptastic writing over the past 2 seasons!

Edited by leto
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Five Reasons Why The Walking Dead's Ratings Are Crashing To Season 3 Levels
Paul Tassi   Nov. 27, 2016
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/11/27/five-reasons-why-the-walking-deads-ratings-are-crashing-to-season-3-levels/#79773ef96041

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The current biggest threat to Rick’s group isn’t Negan and the Saviors, it’s audience disinterest.

AMC’s plan worked initially, and The Walking Dead put up record numbers as 17 million tuned into the Season 7 premiere to see who Negan had actually killed during after the Season 6 cliffhanger. But afterward? The show’s ratings have fallen off a cliff in the weeks that followed. They dropped precipitously from 12.5 in episode 2 to now just 11 million viewers in episode 5.

While viewers always drop off to a certain extent after season premieres, this is simply unprecedented for The Walking Dead. Losing over 6 million viewers in just five episodes is not a fluke, and the downward trend may not be over yet. Having just 11 million viewers drops The Walking Dead to a viewership level not seen since season 3. The show was still popular then, but with seasons 4 and 6 averaging about 12-13 million viewers an episode, and season five averaging more like 13-15, this is obviously not the direction The Walking Dead wants to be moving. Season 6 may have indicated a slow decline, but now in season 7, viewer interest is dying off at a simply alarming rate.
*  *  *
3. Fans Just Don’t Like Negan

I mean, you’re not supposed to like Negan, given that he’s a villain, but there are good villains and poor villains, and over these last five episodes, I have not be surprised to learn many fans think Negan is more lame than menacing.

I’ve talked about this before, but even though Jeffrey Dean Morgan is doing a picture-perfect impression of Negan from the comics, I don’t think that a 1:1 translation of Negan from the comics is actually the best move for his character. His quippy lines, his plastered smiled, his eternal swagger. He comes off like a cartoon character. This is a show that has produced some truly harrowing villains, from the Governor to the Terminus cannibals to the Wolves, and Negan just seems too goofy by comparison.

Also, the show has done nothing but drive the exact same message home for five episodes now that Negan is in charge, Negan is boss, Negan is your world now. That’s great, and necessary for some measure of plot development, but it’s getting a bit tiresome, and the way this threat is probably going to be overcome, a betrayal from within, the uniting of oppressed colonies, seems a bit too telegraphed already.
*  *  *
4. Fans Don’t Like Seeing Rick’s Group Subjugated
....

The Walking Dead Hits a Four-Year Ratings Low — 6 Possible Reasons Why
By Charlie Mason / December 1 2016, 10:00 AM PST
http://tvline.com/2016/12/01/the-walking-dead-season-7-ratings-low-reasons-why/

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1 | Backlash from the Season 7 premiere
More than half of the viewers who voted in our October polls said that the show had gone too far with its violent depiction of Glenn and Abraham’s murders, and almost 40 percent of respondents swore that they were done with the show. Maybe it just took them a while to realize that, when they’d claimed to be through, they’d actually meant it.

2 | Negan
Perhaps at the moment the audience just isn’t in the mood to watch a totalitarian ruler who thinks he’s hilarious tear apart a nice place like Alexandria while intimidating, demoralizing and/or humiliating every character who challenges him.
*  *  *
6 | It’s depressing as hell
We know that we’re headed for an epic showdown. In the meantime, however, it’s a bummer-and-a-half to see Rick so broken and scared, and Daryl, reluctantly playing Negan’s lapdog.

Why No One Should Worry About The Walking Dead's Ratings
Brandon Davis- 12/04/2016
http://comicbook.com/thewalkingdead/2016/12/04/why-no-one-should-worry-about-the-walking-deads-ratings/

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First of all, let's put this into perspective by comparing The Walking Dead to Fear the Walking Dead. Let's say The Walking Dead drops so low as 9 million viewers for a single episode -- which it very well might with 7x07, at this rate -- the number of viewers is still three times as high as the spinoff series. Still, with about 3 to 4 million viewers per week (on a good week), Fear the Walking Dead earned a third season. Talking Dead sometimes hauls in more viewers that, which, by comparison to another popular late night talk show, is more than The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon gets on some nights.

In fact, with 9 million viewers, The Walking Dead will still be by far the top rated cable program on Sunday night. Second place belongs to its after show Talking Dead and third, often times, is claimed by a repeat screening of the same new episode after Talking Dead. Outside of the AMC programming, Bravo's Real Housewives shows nab a fraction of what The Walking Dead does on Sunday nights.

Edited by tv echo
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Here's another one:

Is 'Walking Dead' feeling bite of too many dystopian dramas?

By Brian Lowry, CNN

Updated 4:50 PM ET, Wed December 7, 2016 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/07/entertainment/walking-dead-dystopian-dramas/?iid=ob_lockedrail_topeditorial

"The Walking Dead's" declining ratings -- dipping down to third-season levels -- have inspired a lot of thoughtful analysis regarding why. The cited factors range from the brutality of the Negan arc to the show's disjointed format to viewers simply tiring of being manipulated by the producers with gimmicky twists.

The article actually goes on to suggest that there are too many similar shows with the same theme, and viewers are turning to those new shows.  Hogwash.  People wouldn't be abandoning the show if there weren't issues with it.  I am one of those people.  I missed last Sunday's show (DVR issues) and I can't really say I'm all that unhappy about missing it, particularly since I read it was yet another pointlessly extended episode.

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On 12/8/2016 at 0:00 PM, blackwing said:

The article actually goes on to suggest that there are too many similar shows with the same theme, and viewers are turning to those new shows.  Hogwash.  People wouldn't be abandoning the show if there weren't issues with it. 

If fans of TWD were watching these new, similar shows, I'd think if TWD were still superior, the fans would be abandoning those shows, not TWD.

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Here's another article along those same lines:

Much like the lumbering zombies at the center of the series, The Walking Dead once seemed to be pretty unstoppable. Season after season, ratings continued to rise, cementing the AMC thriller's position as TV's number one show. But as fans of the show know all too well, nothing good lasts in this world.

Despite a series second-best total audience of 17.03 million people tuning in for the epic (and epically polarizing) premiere that saw Negan ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan) bash the head in of not one, but two beloved characters, season seven has been on a rating landslide. Over the course of just seven weeks, The Walking Dead has watched its audience erode to numbers not seen since season three, with the latest episode pulling in a modest 10.48 million. While those numbers are nothing to sniff at (most broadcast shows would kill for them, in fact) and the bonkers numbers pulled in for the premiere—due in large part to curiosity over one of TV's most egregious cliffhangers ever —were never expected to be the new normal, there's no doubt that the folks at AMC are watching their cash cow's diminishing returns with sweat on their brow.

But all hope is not lost. There's still plenty of opportunity to get this runaway train back on track. Here's how.

http://www.eonline.com/news/814840/the-walking-dead-is-off-track-here-s-how-to-fix-it

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3 hours ago, millennium said:

This article in USA today says TWD has lost a quarter of its audience this season alone and is currently experiencing its lowest ratings since 2013:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2016/12/09/amc-walking-dead-ratings/95196316/

I've been seeing this for weeks. Call me optimistic, but I really don't think that it's a huge cause for concern in the grand scheme of things. 

As the article mentioned, while TWD viewership is down, so are the numbers from other popular network TV shows. Not only that, but despite the drop, TWD is still enjoying its 5th consecutive year in 1st place. Is there some truth to the fact that TWD might be experiencing a decline as a result of its age and current storytelling? Absolutely. But even despite those truths, TWD is still the king of the hill for the time being. The show is struggling compared to its own standard of success, but in general it's still incredibly popular. 

Personally, I think the ratings will pick back up in the 2nd half of season 7 and into season 8 as the All Out War arc comes into fruition. In the comics, All Out War is 12 chapters (an average TV season is what, 15-20 chapters?) of largely non-stop action/fighting/chaos. That basically means we have a full season of an uptick in action on the horizon. No more bottle episodes, no more character/setting introductions, no more plot setup, etc etc. People love action most of all, and I expect the ratings to reflect that.

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The Walking Dead: 10 Reasons Fans Are Abandoning The Show
Padraig Cotter  Dec. 5, 2016
http://whatculture.com/tv/the-walking-dead-10-reasons-fans-are-abandoning-the-show

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Since The Walking Dead aired the now infamous season seven opener 'The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be', the show has been haemorrhaging viewers. That episode landed the show over 17 million viewers, but in the weeks since the ratings have crashed to just over 10 million.

While a dip was expected after such a highly anticipated event episode, the sharp plummet must be causing worry at AMC headquarters. The show has only gone from strength to strength since it began, but now all signs point to fans getting fed up with it.

10. The Pornographic Misery
9. Negan Hasn't Added Much
8. The Zombie Fad Is Dying
7. The Lack Of Respect For Fans
6. The Season 7 Opener
5. The Eight Episode Cycle
4. Most Of The Likeable Characters Are Dead
3. The Relentless Filler
2. It's Just No Fun Anymore
1. Rick Has Run Out Of Story

Edited by tv echo
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Critics' Picks: The 10 Worst TV Shows of 2016
6:00 AM 12/23/2016 by Tim Goodman and Daniel Fienberg
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/worst-tv-shows-2016-critics-picks-958855/item/american-housewife-critics-worst-tv-2016-958857

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The Walking Dead
AMC

.  .  .
I don't know if you've heard this, but Negan is a bad, bad man. In 2016, The Walking Dead aired eight episodes of people talking about how bad Negan is, followed by eight episodes of Jeffrey Dean Morgan sneering, monologuing and peacocking to illustrate how bad Negan is. Along the way, Negan became so bad he became boring, or else the endless conversations and displays of his badness became so overblown that I became desensitized.

The Walking Dead has now killed off too many characters whose names I remember and done too flimsy a job of introducing new characters, with exhaustingly long periods separating characters and diluting the connections between them. Something needs to be done to reinvigorate the Walking Dead zombies and, more importantly, to reinvigorate the show's pacing. The latter process could be started by AMC telling producers, "Get back to doing regular-length episodes, not every story requires 90 minutes," something AMC will never tell the producers of TV's highest-rated show. — D.F.

Edited by tv echo
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Combined Live +7 numbers for the back 8 episodes of Season 6 and the first 8 episodes of Season 7, we get an 8.8 rating in the demo, and an average of 17.89 million viewers.

The shows you think had the best year in 2016, at least in terms of ratings? Well, you were right. They did.

Much has been written about “The Walking Dead’s” decline in Season 7, and its dropoff after a huge season premiere was real and significant. But it was still far and away the No. 1 show among adults 18-49 in 2016, and among the Top 5 in total viewers.

Broadcast TV shows dominate both the 18-49 and viewer lists below. Cable and streaming shows are dominant in terms of awards and cultural cachet, but the shows watch the most are overwhelmingly on network TV. (Cable shows fare a little better in the 18-49 rankings, with three of the Top 10 spots; only “The Walking Dead” lands in the Top 20 in viewers.)

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/more-tv-news/the-20-highest-rated-shows-of-2016-the-walking-dead-and-the-big-bang-theory-win-the-year/

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Despite a few self-inflicted wounds, The Walking Dead did extremely well this past year:

Here are the Top 100 primetime telecasts (including a couple of ties) of 2016 in adults 18-49.

Super Bowl 50 ranks No. 1 by a large margin. Live sports dominates the Top 100, taking nine of the Top 10 spots — the Oscars on ABC, at No. 8 is the lone entertainment show in the Top 10 — and making up more than half the entire list. The Top 40 non-sports shows of the year follow the first chart.

Speaking of the Oscars, although they were down in 2016 they were still easily the biggest non-sports telecast of the year.

All figures below are live + same-day ratings. They do not include election night telecasts or programming that aired on multiple networks at once, such as the presidential debates.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/more-tv-news/the-highest-rated-tv-programs-of-2016-oscars-break-up-sports-dominance/

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Something a little different...

The zombie apocalypse won't take long.

A new article in a peer-reviewed student journal finds that the zombie hordes would take Earth's population down to a mere 273 survivors in 100 days.

The paper, published in the University of Leicester's Journal of Physics Special Topics, was a fanciful use of the so-called SIR model, which is used in epidemiology to simulate how diseases spread over time. It's not the first time zombies have been used as a public health metaphor. In December 2015, for example, the British medical journal The Lancet published a tongue-in-cheek paper titled "Zombie infections: epidemiology, treatment, and prevention." And a viral blog post from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged zombie-apocalypse preparations as a a metaphor for real-life disaster preparedness.

http://www.livescience.com/57407-zombie-apocalypse-would-take-100-days.html

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Hope rose - and so did the ratings...

Ratings for this week's TWD episode (7x09-Rock In the Road) were 5.72 demo and 12.00 total viewers:
http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/walking-dead-season-seven-ratings/

‘The Walking Dead’ Ratings Rise From Midseason Finale In Winter Break Return
Dominic Patten  February 14, 2017 6:30am
http://deadline.com/2017/02/the-walking-dead-ratings-season-7-winter-return-grammys-andrew-lincoln-amc-1201911193/

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Facing the Grammys for the first time in two years, the AMC show based on the Robert Kirkman-created comics was up 13% in overall sets of eyeballs compared to its winter finale of December 11, 2016 which faced Sunday Night Football. Among the key demo, TWD rose 12% against the “Hearts Still Beating” eighth episode of Season 7 late last year.

That’s the first time a midseason return of TWD has been up from the winter finale since Season 4 came back from its two-month and one-week break on February 9, 2014. After a season that so far has seen double-digit declines for the still highest rated series on TV following a near record-breaking start last fall, any upward movement is a move in the right direction for TWD and AMC.

Having said that, Sunday’s TWD S7 return declined 13% in total viewers and 14% in the 18-49s from the Season 6 return of February 14 last year. That “No Way Out” holiday weekend episode did not face the Grammys, which CBS moved to a Monday in 2016, but it did have to contend with a high-scoring NBA All-Star Game and Kobe Bryant’s last appearance on that court.

Edited by tv echo
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Looks like Kirkman is still as full of it as ever:

* Creator Robert Kirkman marveled at how vividly Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been able to bring the show’s big bad Negan to life: “[Negan] is this horrible person… but he has this spark to him that’s really engaging and really entertaining. And Jeffrey portrayed that so well… there’s a warmth to him even when he’s performing these horrible things. I don’t know how he pulls it off.”

http://tvline.com/2017/03/17/the-walking-dead-season-7-spoilers-finale-paleyfest-rick-negan/

In your dreams, Kirkman. Only in your fevered, adolescent dreams.

Edited by Raven1707
Once an editor, always an editor
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I came across this today -- in the Masked Scheduler's Ratings Smackdown -- and thought it might be of interest in regards to the potential return of Heath:

Do I think "24" will return next year and with the current cast? Probably not. Also Corey Hawkins is a movie star and will be off fighting King Kong and assorted Japanese Kaiju for the next few years.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/tv-ratings-monday-march-20-2017/

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I've just seen something about Josh Mcdermitt deactivating his social media accounts, because he was receiving death threats over the character Eugene. WTF is wrong with people? 

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2 hours ago, Raven1707 said:

Looks like Heath could potentially show up in future seasons:

Or... maybe not. :)

Don't get me wrong; I like(d) Heath's character.  I disliked his character leaving the series when it did.  One thing I did like, however, was the "vanishing act" manner in which Heath's character disappeared.  It's totally appropriate in the context of the post-ZA environment, and I have been surprised - and more than a little bothered - it hasn't been exploited more.  

It should, you know, in terms of realism*; in a ZA it's ridiculous to expect every death to be properly witnessed / documented / grieved / processed.  Some people should go out on what should be a totally typical exploration or scavenging run, cheerily call "I'll see you later!" as they head out the gate, and... disappear.  No longer at this address, no forwarding information available.  No found corpse, no familiar clothes awash in ominous massive totally-unable-to-survive blood spills, no distressingly familiar walker rambling up to the gate.  Just... nothing.  

Mind you, TPTB have come close a few times.  I had really high hopes when Sophia vanished - there one minute, poofties the next.  IMHO such disappearances would lend a FANTASTIC touch of the spookily macabre which is sorely missing in the normal parade of whoops-someone-else-is-getting-ripped-to-shreds-again-this-week-ism.  An innocent child, alone in a savage post-apocalyptic world, no resolution, no closure?  Torturing everyone else forevermore, always wondering if they should have searched just one more time, in just one more slightly-different direction...?  Stellar.  I was *so* disappointed when Sophia popped back up again with a nice neat closure-in-a-box.  

Same with Carol in the Prison in S3E4 (which, incidentally, was how the Carol character was originally slated to exit TWD):

  • Carol and T-Dog disappear.
  • Rick&Co. later find T-Dog's walker-mutilated corpse.
  • Of Carol, nothing - except her scarf and her gun near T-Dog's body.

Perfection - until the next episode, anyway.  :P

So... yeah.  Nothing at all against Heath, but I'd be lying if I didn't say a part of me hopes I never see his face in TWDLand again.  :>

 

* Yah yah, I know, it's not "real", yadda yadda yadda.  "Believability" strike you better than "realism"?  Fine.  Substitute it and keep going, ya pedantic schmuck.

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(edited)

I can't decide if this is funny, informative, or in bad taste (from joint event by Heroes & Villains FanFest and Walker Stalker Con this weekend)...

Edited by tv echo
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