AMC Announces A Third Walking Dead Series Fronted By Two Female Characters

It has been known for a while that AMC was looking to expand its ‘Walking Dead’ with the appointment of one-time showrunner Scott M. Gimple to oversee all things ‘Walking Dead’.  The first expansion announced was a trilogy of TV movies starring Andrew Lincoln, which will answer what became of Rich Grimes after his departure last season.  Now comes word that a third full-time series will be added to the network’s lineup.  This will allow the network to offer new ‘Walking Dead’  episodes nonstop, year-round.  (This includes existing series ‘Fear the Walking Dead’.)

 

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AMC’s president of ad sales, Scott Collins explained:

“This allows us to come to the marketplace with completely uninterrupted ‘Walking Dead’ universe content from post-Super Bowl Sunday to Thanksgiving.”

The new show will focus on two young female protagonists, says Sarah Barnett, the president of AMC’s entertainment networks, who pointed to other young female characters that have appeared lately, and “have resonated” with viewers.  (‘Fear’ previously centered around Kim Dickens’ character Madison Clark, and her daughter, Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), until Madison was killed off in Season 3.)

Some may raise their eyebrows at AMC adding more ‘Walking Dead’ when ratings for the prime series have dropped to all-time lows, and ‘Fear’ has never been the same level of powerhouse.

 

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Barnett insists:

“We believe in the underlying vitality of the ‘Walking Dead” universe.  ’Walking Dead’ itself continues to be the number-one show by some margin.  This show just continues to be an incredible boon for us. It’s something another cable or streaming network would actually kill for.”

And advertisers seem to agree.  According to Variety, a bundle of ads for ‘The Walking Dead’ costs $415,000– only NFL broadcasts command more.  It was also pointed out that both ‘Walking Dead’ series attract the most desirable advertisers, like Apple, American Express, T-Mobile and Microsoft.

Are you intrigued about a third ‘Walking Dead’ series?  Are you excited by non-stop new ‘Walking Dead’ almost all year long?