I think that the general audience is just turned off by seeing "the group" get flexed on so much. Rick in particular. Seeing him being emasculated like that is GREAT drama and from a character standpoint I'm more than fascinated by all of this....but the most people have short attention spans, and probably just want all of this to pass quickly so that we can get back to the "Ricktatorship". The problem is that, it might be awhile before the people we care about are back on top. I obviously won't spoil anything but I'll say this : Judging from the comics, how much time the show takes to get through storylines, and the fact that they brought in a relatively popular movie actor in JDM to play Negan....I was expecting this storyline to go on for at least 2 and a half seasons. And am not expecting defiance from our group until at least the end of this season...and that might be pushing it. Look where Rick is at right now. I'm thinking that we'll maybe get a "no more mister nice guy" moment in the very last episode of this season.
I've no clue what the showrunners are thinking right now. They might not be concerned at all, or they might be shytting their pants. It all depends on what their plans for this storyline are. If they were expecting to drag this out for a significant amount of time...they might need to make some changes.The show is just very negative right now, even moreso than usual. For the people that just wanted power-fantasy and escapism, it's probably a tough watch right now.
Hell, I'm personally getting a little sick of seeing all the women being at risk of being sexually assaulted. Negan has made multiple passes at Rosita. Made a comment about trying to rape Maggie. Made a small comment about Michonne. Carl's girlfriend had that weird moment with that pedo....
They obviously don't need to be in all out panic-mode, but I think that they need to be mindful. Funny that people are bringing up LOST, when you look at the ratings of that show, you can actually SEE the moment where the tide finally turned.
Ratings
Season 3, episode 6, and the bizarre 3 month break they took after, was the straw that broke the camels back. They NEVER recovered from that Season 3 slump. They still did well, but many of those viewers tuned out for good.
This is right around the time where they started adding a bunch of new characters, splitting up characters and storylines at a more rapid pace, and exposing the survivors as being less competent than we had been led to believe....
they hype the fukk outta this show too, talking dead was dope and useless at the same time.
