@DRDMovieMusings said:

The season 9 premiere will be the lowest premiere rating TWD will ever have, and there will be no season 10.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope the writing and storytelling improves. There are still a lot of questions for which we'd like some answers.

But, if season 9 maintains the current poor level of writing, viewership will plummet and they'll have no choice but to pull the plug, once and for all.

Somehow I think you may be right.

I don't, lots of folks have hated the war with the Saviors and now that it's over folks might tune in again like they have each time something they didn't like has finished. The imprisoning of Negan took the comic in a different direction, it's likely going to be the same with the show and I'm certain that herd of thousands we saw in the finale might be part of it. The show is after all called The Walking Dead and not The Walking Bad Guys as it should have been for the past 2 seasons.

@krashd said:

I don't, lots of folks have hated the war with the Saviors and now that it's over folks might tune in again like they have each time something they didn't like has finished. The imprisoning of Negan took the comic in a different direction, it's likely going to be the same with the show and I'm certain that herd of thousands we saw in the finale might be part of it. The show is after all called The Walking Dead and not The Walking Bad Guys as it should have been for the past 2 seasons.

Except that "the walking dead" may just as aptly refer to the people, all of whom are infected and are, for all intents and purposes, "walking dead already. "

The title, the story, after all, is "art," so taking its poetry and symbolism literally is missing something. It's never been "about the walkers", it's been about how people have fought to adjust to this new world.