Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier, Lennie James as Morgan Jones, Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee, Tom Payne as Paul 'Jesus' Rovia, Christian Serratos as Rosita Espinosa, Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes - The Walking Dead _ The Walking Dead Season 8, Episode 16 - Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

The Walking Dead season finale ratings soared in extended views proving the show has the staying power to remain the number one show on cable for another year.

After The Walking Dead season 8 finale came back with relatively low live views for the season 8 finale episode ‘Wrath’ many critics said that the dropping numbers indicated the imminent failure of the show.

But The Walking Dead season 8 finale soared in Live+3 extended views, the way that it has for the last two seasons. Cable live views have dropped across the board as millions of people every year drop expensive cable subscriptions and watch their favorite shows in other ways. Over the course of the last two seasons the show has consistently picked up more than a million views per episode in extended views, showing that fans are still watching. They’re just watching using different formats like streaming or DVR.

The Walking Dead season finale also had low live views because of the Survival Sunday event where fans could see the season 8 finale and the premiere episode of season 4 of Fear The Walking Dead back to back in movie theaters around the country.

The Walking Dead season 8 finale jumped by a whopping 2.75 million views in extended viewing ending up with 10.6 million views for the initial broadcast and the three days following the broadcast. The gain of more than 35% in 3 days keeps The Walking Dead far ahead of any other show on cable.

Waiting For TWD To Fail

The Walking Dead definitely took some big risks in season 8. Killing off Carl and dragging out the end of All Out War along with the uneven season finale that failed to deliver the huge battle that was hyped led many critics to declare the show was done. They pointed to the low live ratings as proof that fans were angry and that the show had jumped the shark.

But the numbers tell a different story, one that is more reliable than the wailing of critics. The ratings numbers prove that The Walking Dead is still a ratings powerhouse. It’s extremely unusual for a show to continue to have the kind of ratings that TWD delivers week after week and season after season.

Even though the numbers have dropped slightly overall the show is still the benchmark that all other cable shows are measured against and the ratings leader when it comes to genre and cable TV shows. The critics are waiting for the show to fail are going to have to continue waiting because The Walking Dead’s ratings are still strong.