By Joshua Tyler
| (*20*)Revealed 5 seconds in the past

Normally, after we talk about why one thing failed as a part of our Why It Failed collection, it’s about a complete film or collection that underperformed or missed the mark. This time, I’m doing one thing completely different. As an alternative of a complete present, I’m magnifying one particular resolution. 

It was a call so dangerous, so disastrous, that it worn out not only a tv present’s rankings however its total future. One resolution, one second that utterly destroyed the preferred collection on tv. 

This is why killing Glenn failed.

The Strolling Useless’s As soon as In A Era Reputation

By the point The Strolling Useless reached Season 7 in 2016, it was the most important present on cable tv, pulling in over 17 million viewers for its Season 7 premiere and dominating popular culture. The collection was on its technique to solidifying a spot as one of many all-time nice tv exhibits.

Within the season 7 opener, The Strolling Useless threw all of it away. The present killed off Glenn Rhee in season 7’s first episode. It was a turning level that the collection by no means recovered from.

From the surface wanting in, that being the factor that destroyed the present may not make any sense. The collection had killed off dozens of main characters by then. Killing off beloved characters had develop into The Strolling Useless’s trademark, and that was exactly the issue.

By season 7, viewers had already begun questioning why they have been watching the present. Week after week, The Strolling Useless delivered countless moments of distress and dying. Issues by no means obtained higher, and characters you liked have been at all times getting eaten.

Viewers Started To Really feel As Although They Have been Being Abused

Glenn Rhee, performed by Steven Yeun, had been with the present since its second episode. He was one of many only a few left who’d survived from the unique forged.

He wasn’t only a survivor; he was sensible, loyal, and resourceful. He was the ethical compass who’d saved Rick, gotten the group out of numerous jams, and constructed a plausible, heartfelt relationship with Maggie (Lauren Cohan). He was the one constant vivid spot in a present constructed round countless struggling.

And but, The Strolling Useless had already been taking Glenn with no consideration. In season six, the present put collectively an arc that faked Glenn’s dying after which toyed with the viewers over whether or not he was alive or not. Possibly that was their means of prepping the viewers for once they really did kill him, however for followers, it was starting to really feel like they have been being abused.

Why Killing Glenn Drove Viewers Away

When within the season 7 premiere, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) bludgeoned Glenn to dying with a baseball bat in entrance of your entire group, the loss hit laborious. However it wasn’t simply the dying; it was the way it was finished. The lingering close-ups of his crushed cranium, the notorious “eye pop,” and the extended sadism made it really feel much less like drama and extra like punishment for watching.

Viewers had endured loads of character deaths earlier than, however Glenn’s execution crossed a line. Folks started to query why they have been nonetheless watching this, questioning what there was to root for. These weren’t questions The Strolling Useless needed its viewers asking as a result of as soon as they did, the reply was nothing.

Strolling Useless’s Huge Scores Drop After Glenn’s Dying

Scores instantly dipped. 17 million watched Glenn’s homicide. Solely 12 million have been nonetheless watching the following episode. Solely 11 million for the third. That decline by no means stopped. It stored accelerating. By the present’s closing season, it averaged fewer than two million viewers per episode. 

The Strolling Useless film AMC introduced by no means occurred. It was canceled and finally reworked right into a six episode miniseries which, predictably, nobody watched. It barely managed one million viewers.

The Strolling Useless’s Viewers Wanted Security

Once they killed Glenn, the emotional coronary heart of the present was gone, changed by grim shock worth. The present’s manufacturing group thought they have been being edgy by proving that nobody was protected, however viewers already knew that. What their viewers wanted was to really feel protected, and The Strolling Useless took that away from them.

Defenders of the transfer wish to level out that Glenn additionally died within the comics, however that’s irrelevant. By season 7, The Strolling Useless had firmly established that it wasn’t sticking to comedian ebook canon. 

Past that, this supply materials argument misses the significance of the way in which the dying was dealt with. They didn’t simply kill the one ray of hope on the present; they stomped it into the bottom and spat on it. 

In doing so, they worn out The Strolling Useless’s future legacy. What was as soon as the most important tv present, beloved by tens of tens of millions of ardent followers, is now not talked about. Within the age of countless streaming binging, the place all the pieces previous is new once more, The Strolling Useless is definitely lifeless. It’s payback for what they did to Glenn.