I'm fairly certain that the ratings for TWD has not dropped so much as to be of concern for AMC. It will be interesting to see what the numbers were for last night's premiere.

I loved the episode but man, that was tough to watch. I thought that Abraham and Glenn were going to be the ones to get Lucille'd but that did not make it any easier. Things got really difficult for me when Negan was asking Rick to cut off Carl's arm; that was brutal, but necessary in order to make Negan as feared as he needs to be for the story arc to be told.

Negan is going to be around for a while.