A lot of fans feel Negan is driving viewers away. I agree to an extent. But its been downhill since they killed Glenn. They lost something like 6 million viewers for the following episode. They didnt understand what they were doing.
Plus, a lot of the characters do stupid things. Its lacking realism (for a zombie show). Rick is tough to feel for now. He's a lousy leader. And that would have charm if the point was a flawed hero doing his best but he literally never learns from his mistakes. They've hardly done anything with Daryl for ages either, and he's the most popular character on the show.