AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead is currently airing its seventh season and its same-day ratings are at all-time lows. In fact, all three of the TWD shows, which includes the main series and World Beyond, have seen continued viewer attrition as what I refer to as the Walking Dexit has been taking its toll on the franchise the last few years. So with the numbers currently on a downward trajectory, could Fear TWD be coming to an end after its current season wraps ups?
That is possible, but I don’t believe AMC will outright cancel the show. This is their flagship franchise and they would not want to leave one of the entries in the series unresolved. But it would not surprise me if the creative team was told in advance to approach the current season as the show’s last in case the network did decide to bring it to an end. I have been predicting for a while that Fear the Walking Dead‘s seventh season could be its last, and based on the current ratings levels that remains a very real possibility.
The show will have its mid-season finale in December, and if it returns with eight episodes for the back half of its season, then it will be just over the one hundred ep threshold that makes it very attractive to the syndication market. So that would certainly be a good place to end the series. And if there are any dangling plot threads, those could be handled in stand-alone episodes of the upcoming anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead.
But the fact that the show has surpassed the syndication stretch and is guaranted an extended life in encore runs means that the same-day ratings do no dictate its fate. Even if the network is taking a loss on the current season, it will make it up in syndication and/or streaming sales. So if the writers are not ready to wrap things up at the end of the current season, AMC could greenlight an eighth year knowing that it will make up the cost in the long run.
I’m still thnking that at some point that back half of FtWD‘s seventh season will be announced as its last. But an eighth year is still in the cards, which could be a shortened run to wrap things up. The fact is that Fear the Walking Dead has never been a fan-favorite, so AMC is not necessarily motivated to keep it going much longer. It has reached the 100 episode mark and it will continue to make money in syndication. But its run of new episodes will likely come to an end within a year or so.
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