Why The Walking Dead Might Get Cancelled

In just two episodes time, Rick Grimes - the man upon whose shoulders the entire Walking Dead TV series was built - will bow out of the show after Andrew Lincoln decided it was time to hang up his hat and hangdog expression and hand the reigns over to someone else. Thus will end the Grimes dynasty (aside for Judith who isn't a real one anyway) and mark a fundamental change in the show's DNA, according to Lincoln at least.

But what if that change is more drastic than anyone could have imagined? What if all of those claims of many, many more stories to tell and multiple new series to be optioned were pie in the sky and we're instead going to see the end of The Walking Dead in the very near future? That might sound dramatic, but it wouldn't be without good reason.

The reality for AMC's current flagship show is that cancellation might not only be the right way to go, it might be an inevitability sooner rather than later. Here's why The Walking Dead might face cancellation soon...

4. The Ratings

Unfortunately for AMC, ratings are one of the biggest defining factors in a show's cancellation and while The Walking Dead isn't exactly scraping the barrel for fans, it's nowhere near the levels it used to be not so long ago.

Even with a pick up in story strength and better focus this season, ratings have slumped in season 9 with a staggering 50% decrease in the key 18-49 demographic from the same point in season 8. That won't have been helped by the episode airing for free on AMC Premiere ahead of the release, but the decision to do that in itself already smacks of desperate measures.

If that sort of progress continues even as the show-makers try to make a concentrated effot to alleviate the departure of their main character, we're looking at something dangerous.