"The Walking Dead" Season 2 Updates

My guess is that it would have led Mad Men to ending up on another station. I'm not sure they had any good choices.

 

That may be so, but then they could have taken that leftover money and put it into Breaking Bad, Walking Dead and Hell On Wheels. Given the ratings, will any other network pick up Mad Men? AMC should have played harder ball.

 

Mad Men doesn't get high ratings. Its value is just in Emmys prestige. But the likely places where Mad Men could end up - HBO and Showtime - are the least likely to need help in that department.

I think AMC could have driven a harder bargain.

 

As of last year, Mad Men was pulling in approximately 6 million viewings when adding together all airings, DVR, and VOD.

 

I liked this bit:

Talk about butchering the golden goose.

 

Pfft, TWD does that in one episode. No need to pad the numbers by cobbling everything together. Comparison of the series' ratings here.

(I have no idea why the HuffPo thinks the demographic the advertisers want to reach is "esoteric." It's more like "the whole point of TV." )

TWD also does great overseas:

But this whole fracas does have the benefit of demonstrating why it's good that TV honchos make heartless decisions based on a cold-blooded look at the Nielsens. To do it any other way just means the suits are going to favor their pet projects. Why should I have any respect for that? I don't care about what they like, I care about what I like! I'm willing to let the Nielsens be the arbiter because at least it's objective.

So the next time you're favorite show gets axed for low ratings, just be glad it isn't being axed because the suits like a different show better.

 

How much money would be saved if they got rid of the AMC execs?

 

Well, it looks like we're going to need to be okay with a small number of episodes at a time...

Season two is set to premiere on October 16 with a 90-minute episode, then air six more episodes over a six-week period before going on hiatus. The season will then resume on February 12 for the remaining six episodes.

 

I would rather they just hold all the episodes until February. I don't mind having short seasons but it just kills me when they spread them like this

 

Yeesh. Just show all 12 and then let us wait another year for the next bunch. We waited a year for this bunch, didn't we?

 

One of the advantages of nearly all cable shows is that they run straight through a season instead of taking breaks in between like network tv.

This is just yet another brilliant decesion by the suits at AMC after firing the showrunner and deciding to shoot most of the second season indoors because it is cheaper.

 

I'll give the new showrunner a chance because he worked on "the Shield." But I have a feeling that network interference is going to kill this show fast.

 

It's a brilliant decision... that allows them to release DVDs and blu-rays in six-episode chunks.

 

Great. They'll make a few extra bucks on the DVDs and get the series cancelled in the process.

 

I remember when Sci Fi tried that shit with BSG. Fans were SO pissed.

 

Darabont rejoins the show "in some capacity."

Is this just damage control spin?

 

Or maybe they read my post on this thread about firing the AMC execs to save money and took it as a serious threat?

 

Either that or "Oops, we messed up. HELP!!!!!"

 

That's how I take it. Perhaps they realized making good TV is harder than they thought