The Walking Dead still leads Sunday cable ratings without Rick Grimes

The Walking Dead’s first episode without Rick Grimes stayed at the top of the Sunday night cable ratings.

There was a lot of pressure on The Walking Dead to deliver consistent ratings following the departures of Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan in the fifth episode of season 9 “What Comes After”.

The last episode for the two stars had 5.4 million live views on the night that it aired. But fans didn’t abandon the show in droves the way that some naysayers predicted. The first episode without Rick Grimes, “Who Are You Now” drew 5.39 million viewers on Sunday night. With such a tiny dropoff in live views and no data yet on the extended views for the episode it looks like the claims that The Walking Dead would plummet in popularity after the departure of Andrew Lincoln were wrong.

“Who Are You Now” had the third highest live view total of the season behind the season 9 premiere and episode 905 “What Comes After”. Fans were excited to see what had happened during the six year time jump after Rick was swept into the water and then taken away by Jadis and the helicopter. There were big surprises, some emotional moments, and the arrival of an exciting and terrifying new villain to keep fans engaged as The Walking Dead moves into a new era and fans were totally on board for it.

Judith Grimes

One of the highlights of the time jump was seeing a now 10 year old Judith Grimes with her katana, the Colt pistol, and Carl’s hat following in her dad’s footsteps by saving Magna and her group and bringing them back to Alexandria. Watching Judith and Negan interact was delightful and watching Judith tell her mom Michonne that she is starting to forget Rick’s and Carl’s voices was heartbreaking. But it seems only fitting that Judith will be the future of the show.

RJ Grimes

Judith isn’t the only Grimes child anymore though. Fans were thrilled with the reveal that Michonne had been pregnant when Rick disappeared and Michonne now has a son named RJ. The Grimes story will continue. Michonne will make sure of that.

The Whisperers

The Whisperers arrived at the end of “Who Are You Now” and this terrifying group with their chilling leader Alpha will be unlike anything the survivors have been up against before. Even without Rick Grimes and Maggie Greene The Walking Dead is continuing to reinvent genre TV and lead the way in the scripted cable ratings.