“Walking Dead” is walking away from TV for a little while — and perhaps that’s a good thing.
The AMC zombie drama’s Season 9 midseason finale drew 5.1 million total viewers, according to Nielsen. That’s down 35 percent from Season 8’s comparable episode and a new all-time low for a midseason finale.
The overall audience for Sunday’s “Walking Dead” rose 6 percent from the previous episode. It was up 8 percent among adults 18-49, the demographic most coveted by those companies that advertise their products and services on entertainment programming.
“The Walking Dead” after-show “Talking Dead” was also up single digits versus the prior week. Sunday was the Chris Hardwick-hosted series’ second highest-rated episode of the season, behind only the Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) farewell episode.
AMC prefers to focus on Live + 3 Day ratings, which in this case will be released by Nielsen on Friday.
Season-to-date, “Walking Dead” remains cable’s No. 1 show and the No. 2 drama across all of television, behind only NBC’s “This Is Us.” The bigger they are…