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Andrew Lincoln to Exit ‘The Walking Dead’ During Season 9

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Fans of AMC’s The Walking Dead are used to seeing the show continue without some of their favorite characters… but what if the next big character exit were none other than Rick Grimes?

Collider reported this afternoon that Andrew Lincoln will be leaving the series next season, marking a departure of the main character of the franchise. No further reasons were given for Lincoln’s departure, but several news outlets are citing off-screen drama between the talent and the studio bean counters, including Lauren Cohan’s recent very-public contract negotiations. read more

‘The Walking Dead’ Season 8 Finale Nets Lowest Ratings Since Season 1

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While the franchise is still drawing incredible viewership numbers by any comparison other than its previous performance, AMC’s The Walking Dead set several dubious milestones with Season Eight’s ratings. First, the season premiere in October, 2017 earned the lowest premiere ratings for the show since Season Three. By November, the show’s regular episodes started netting the lowest ratings numbers since Season Two, and the mid-season premiere in February, 2018 drew the lowest mid-season premiere ratings in the history of the franchise. Now, the season finale ratings numbers are in, and they continue this season’s trend of falling back to earlier, smaller milestones. read more

‘The Walking Dead’ Season 8 Finale Will Supposedly Wrap Up All Eight Seasons

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In Entertainment Weekly’s exclusive interview with The Walking Dead’s Scott Gimple, the  showrunner claimed that this Sunday’s finale will finally wrap up eight seasons of storytelling, and head in a new direction in season nine.

Gimple realized that “People were pretty to the limit this year emotionally.” and therefore “…this episode isn’t just like these 15 episodes coming to a conclusion, but Angela and myself and the writers had always talked about this in many ways being sort of the conclusion of the first eight seasons. This show will be very much a new show next year and with a bigger, new narrative. It was something I was really excited about getting into even before season 8. And so there was just a certain weight in the air of the kind of conclusion that we were getting closer to. It was a weird graduation for everybody.” read more

AMC To Produce Series Based on Joe Hill’s ‘NOS4A2’

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Horror writer Joe Hill has just received some very welcome news, only days after receiving some bad.  While Hulu ultimately decided to pass on a small-screen adaptation of his novel Locke and Key, AMC did agree to produce a series based on arguably Hill’s best novel, NOS4A2. Fear the Walking Dead show-runner Jami O’Brien will front the project and Tornante Television (Michael Eisner’s company) will co-produce along with AMC Studios.

The announcement is both a big win and a big gamble for AMC.  While the jury is still out on new show The Terror, the network has not seen many hits outside of the zombie genre.  Partnering with a hot name in the horror literary world like Joe Hill is sure to energize both camps and fuel the fire for another TV hit.  AMC will give NOS4A2 a 10-episode run, following on the heels of the show being one of their “scripts-to-series” developmental projects last summer.  Two current shows which followed the same model were The Son and Lodge 49.  The network hopes the combination of Hill and O’Brien will give this series more mainstream appeal and staying power. read more

‘The Terror’ Episodes 1 + 2: The Horror News Network Review

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It seems like the 19th century is television’s era of choice these days with shows like TNT’s The Alienist and FX’s Taboo leading the way back into the bizarre past.  Fans of these programs (as well as naval dramas which also originated in the 19th century) will undoubtedly enjoy AMC’s adaptation of Dan Simmons The Terror, as the first two episodes of the series welcome viewers to a world of icy despair and desperation. 

The series is produced by Ridley Scott and based on the harrowing true-life account of the H.M.S. Erebus and H.M.S. Terror, which disappeared without a trace on a mission to discover the Northwest Passage nearly two centuries ago (and if you are looking for more on the “true story”, Nova recently featured an examination of the discovery of the remains of one of the ships, which occurred in 2014).   read more

Jeffrey DeMunn Says He Chose Dale’s Death to Get Off of ‘The Walking Dead’

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It turns out that Jeffrey DeMunn had enough of The Walking Dead long before it was cool to have had enough of The Walking Dead! The way he tells it, he opted to be bit by zombies and violently killed off on the show in order to permanently leave the series after AMC unexpectedly fired the original showrunner, Frank Darabont, while the second season of the show was in production.

The actor, who briefly played the likable Dale Horvath, recently told Cleveland.com that he was so upset with the network’s decision to drop Darabont that he ultimately decided it would be best to ask to be put out of his misery: read more

New Video Showcases Ridley Scott’s Thoughts on ‘The Terror’

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AMC recently released a two and a half minute video featuring Ridley Scott discussing The Terror. The video gives us a closer look at the frigid landscape and the social tension aboard the ship as Scott talks about the realism mixed with fiction.

Based on the 2007 novel The Terror by Dan Simmons, the TV series is set in 1847 and chronicles a desperate game of survival as the crew of the HMS Terror becomes trapped in the ice and stalked by a mysterious predator.

AMC hopes that The Terror will help bring viewership back to the network as ratings for the networks staple The Walking Dead continue to tumble. Having industry legend Ridley Scott team up with Television 360, the crew behind hits like Game of Thrones, only enhances the chance of this series becoming another giant for the network. read more

Viewership for ‘The Walking Dead’ Continues to Drop with Lowest-Ever Ratings for Season 8 Mid-Season Premiere

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Earlier this week, HNN’s own Nick Banks promptly reviewed Carl’s extended farewell in The Walking Dead Season Eight mid-season premiere, but it turns out he’s part of a group of viewers that just keeps shrinking. It’s been no secret that viewership ratings for the show have been declining since Season Seven, but the series set a dubious record Sunday night for its lowest rated midseason premiere of all time.

Variety reports that Nielsen’s Live+Same Day “data shows that Sunday’s premiere drew a 3.6 rating in adults 18-49 and 8.3 million viewers.” The drop in viewership from last year’s mid-season premiere amounts to nearly 4 million fewer viewers. If it’s any consolation, 2012’s Season Two mid-season premiere earned a higher overall rating of 4.2 in the key 18-49 demographic, but it netted slightly fewer overall viewers (8.1 million as opposed to Season Seven’s 8.3 million). read more

‘The Walking Dead’ Season 8 Mid-Season Premiere: The Horror News Network Review

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The last time that viewers got to watch the Walking Dead, it left off on a tragic and shocking note with Carl being bitten and awaiting his fate.  Unfortunately, but not unsurprisingly, what this mid-season premier turned out to be was us waiting a few months to get another drawn out, over-indulgent, and most importantly, emotionless goodbye to one of the original characters.

The Walking Dead has a long history of emotional goodbyes.  The number of characters that viewers have said goodbye to is too numerous to list at this point after eight seasons, but the early departures were always handled with finesse, knowing when to cut the scene and provide the important emotional punch.  That all changed with season six’s final episode that created their version of the infamous “Who Shot J.R.?” angle and the subsequent bashing of Glenn and Abraham by that “smiling jack” by the name of Negan at the start of season seven. read more

‘Walking Dead’ Star Lauren Cohan Lands Lead Role in ABC’s ‘Whiskey Cavalier’; Could Signal Exit from ‘TWD’

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In a move that could signal the end of Maggie on the Walking Dead, Variety is reporting that Lauren Cohan has just  landed the lead role in ABC’s pilot for Whiskey Cavalier.  

According to the report, “Cohan does not currently have a contract in place to return for The Walking Dead’s upcoming ninth season and has been in negotiations with AMC for months over her potential return to the zombie apocalypse series. Cohan has been on the AMC show since its second season…If Whiskey Cavalier moves forward, it is possible Cohan could return to The Walking Dead on a recurring basis in Season 9 or simply leave the show entirely.” read more