Ratings for AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’ might be down, but it is still the #1 rated drama on cable and the #2 drama on all of TV (behind ‘This is Us’). The network is banking on its continued popularity. There is already one spinoff, ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ which alternates the Sunday time slot with the main show when it is on hiatus. Now comes word that a third ‘Walking Dead’ series is in “active development.”
During AMC’s fourth quarter 2018 conference call, Ed Carroll, AMC’s chief operating officer stated:
“That is in active development. We’re not yet at a stage where we’ll be announcing its plans to premiere. But we have hired creative people that have pitched story outlines. We feel very good about the development of that series. We’re not in a position to talk about partnerships in terms of other territories or ancillary windows, other than that there’s a healthy appetite for it and we’ve had a number of conversations with a lot of players in the space.”
As for those dwindling ratings, Carroll stated:
“We are well aware that when a show has been around for nine years, you would expect viewership to be declining, but I think we’ve managed that and managed that well. When The Walking Dead is no longer part of the channel, I think that will have more of an impact on revenue than on [income] because generally, expenses go up as the seasons continue and viewership declines. That’s just a general pattern with any show that’s been around as long as The Walking Dead has.”
Former showrunner Scott M. Gimple now oversees all things ‘Walking Dead’ with an eye on expanding into other formats, including online material and TV movies. The first of the latter will star Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, formerly the main character of ‘The Walking Dead’. That is planned to be the first of three films featuring Lincoln.
No other projects have been announced, but obviously, according to Carroll, there are some in the works. Check back for any updates.
Source: Deadline
