‘The Walking Dead’ Season 9 Premiere Lowest-Rated in Show’s History

Walkers seem to have taken a bite out of The Walking Dead season nine premiere ratings.

Sunday’s season nine premiere of the AMC zombie drama drew a 2.5 key demo rating and 6.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen data as reported by Variety, marking the lowest-rated premiere in The Walking Dead‘s history. The previous low had been held by the series pilot episode, which debuted to a 2.7 rating in 2010 and drew 5.3 million viewers.

Down 27 percent in the demo and 23 percent in the audience over the season eight finale, and down 50 percent in the demo and 47 percent in audience size over the season eight premiere, the downtick in both rating and audience size continues a long-running and alarming trend that has plagued the series in recent seasons. The less-than-stellar ratings also marked the first time since season one that a season premiere has not garnered more than 10 million viewers.

Despite the bad news on the ratings front, the season nine premiere did offer some hope. “A New Beginning” made The Walking Dead the top-rated show on Sunday night and also drove the single highest day of new sign-ups in the history of AMC Premiere, which released the season nine premiere commercial-free 24 hours before its Sunday timeslot.

The post-apocalyptic drama’s ninth season is attempting to pave a new path for the series, shifting the focus towards the crumbling world around the characters as nature reclaims it while also focusing on how the various communities will restore order into the world.

“We spent a lot of time tearing the world apart, the loss of institutions and civil norms,” executive producer Dave Alpert recently said. “We’re starting to see society come back now; it’s not a smooth process. Seeing that come back is most exciting this season.”

The ninth season will certainly mark a major change for the cast, as both Rick Grimes actor Andrew Lincoln and Maggie Greene actress Lauren Cohan are set to make their exits. Lincoln, who has portrayed the series lead since the pilot episode, is expected to depart in the first-half of the season, and Cohan’s exit is expected to be left “open-ended,” leaving the possibility for her to return.

Season nine will also bring back several familiar faces to help say goodbye to Grimes and Cohan, with it recently being announced that Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha Williams), Jon Bernthal (Shane Walsh), and the late Scott Wilson (Hershel Greene) would appear in an upcoming episode.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.