It’s a truth universally acknowledged that Ash vs. Evil Dead kicks ass. After three awesome movies (and one pretty good semi-reboot), most assumed that the saga of one man, his chin, a chainsaw and armies of murderous deadites had reached its conclusion. But in 2015, Starz debuted this excellent show that perfectly captured the bonkers, high concept goriness of the franchise.
Now, in the midst of the third season, the ratings have taken a colossal (and mysterious) dip, with the series premiere garnering a respectable 225,000 viewers, which evened out to about 175,000 in the subsequent episodes. But with the seventh installment, things have cratered, falling to a measly 136,000.
Here’s the full timeline of the third season’s ratings:
- Episode 1 – 225,000 viewers
- Episode 2 – 171,000 viewers
- Episode 3 – 160,000 viewers
- Episode 4 – 176.000 viewers
- Episode 5 – 179,000 viewers
- Episode 6 – 196,000 viewers
- Episode 7 – 136,000 viewers
So, how do you explain this? Was there something in episode six that caused a huge segment of the audience to shrug and give up on the show? The only thing we can think of is that there was the (apparent) death of popular character Kelly, which might have been the final straw for the portion of the audience that’s really into her – maybe?
That line of reasoning feels like a stretch to me, though. Perhaps the public has just had their fill of Bruce Campbell carving his way through increasingly gross looking monsters? After all, fan consensus is that this season has tipped the balance too far towards comedy and the results have been a bit underwhelming.
One thing’s for certain: if the series maintains these low ratings it’s headed straight for cancellation. The only silver lining is that there’s been consistent reports that this season should leave the Evil Dead story at what might be a good jumping off point. Rumor has it that one of the remaining three episodes will see the death of Ash (say it ain’t so!), something that might indicate that it’s time to call it quits on this awesomely trashy bit of television.
If this does prove to be the end of Ash Vs. Evil Dead, I’ll always be thankful that it at least existed and took us back into the blood and bile spattered world created by Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell all those years ago.