Robert Kirkman Gives An Update On How Long ‘The Walking Dead’ Might Last

Ratings for The Walking Dead aren’t what they used to be, but AMC’s zombie-drama is still the most popular show on cable, and it’s not even close. The season seven midseason finale notched a 7.5 rating in the key 18-to-49 demographic — the next highest-rated show was… Talking Dead with a 2.5 rating, followed by South Park with 1.6. “In other words,” our own Dustin Rowles recently wrote, “ratings for The Walking Dead are 4.5x higher than its closest scripted competition on cable.” Now, I may not be a big-city blogger [pulls on suspenders], but even I know those numbers are impressive.

Still, all good things must come to an end, even long-running TV shows (except Doctor Who and The Simpsons), and The Walking Dead will eventually run out of ways for a zombie to almost kill Rick. That won’t be for awhile, though. We wrote about the show’s possible end-date once before, and in a recent issue of The Walking Dead comic series, creator Robert Kirkman provided an update. “It took us 6 seasons to get to 100,” he wrote, according to Comic Book. “It won’t take us 6 years to get to 200 and that will take us to season… TWELVE. And we’ll still be ahead of the show at that point.”

As for where the show is relative to the comic:

Halfway through season seven, the show’s storyline has reached a storyline equivalent to that of issue #111 in the comics. Spencer’s infamous guts death was ripped straight from the pages of that issue. Most recently, The Walking Dead published issue #161…On TV, the series covers about 20 issues in a single season on average. (Via)

Expect The Walking Dead, the TV show, to run for at least 12 seasons, at which point Carl’s hair will have consumed his entire body.

(Via Comic Book)

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