By Dakota Cantwell

The season premier for “The Walking Dead” season 9 aired on Sunday Oct. 7 and was viewed by fewer people than many expected.

Hoping to put the war behind them, the series opens jumping into the future and works toward leaving Negan and his war behind them.

Unfortunately, AMC is also leaving their higher ratings behind as well.

According to Forbes “The premiere drew 6.08 million viewers, which context-free may seem like a lot, and for most shows it would be, but unfortunately, it’s nothing short of a total collapse for the series.”

Just a year ago the season 8 premier had 11.44 million viewers, which was the lowest viewing for any of the other episodes during that season.

With this drop, the rating are finding themselves the same as the first season.

This dip is impacted by many factor including DVR viewers, streaming views and the fact that AMC released the first episode a day early on their website.

It’s important to note, however, that the series was still the highest rated show for that night, even with facing competition from Academy Awards on ABC.

Still, this drop could be seen as troubling with series lead Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln, leaving during this season.

Could Grimes walking into the sunset signal the same for the series?