AMC’s Walking Dead spin-off spawns Talking

AMC is extending The Walking Dead talkshow franchise with a new Chris Hardwick show that will run when the dystopian zombie hit is off air.

The Talking Dead is the talkshow that runs after The Walking Dead and its companion series Fear the Walking Dead, and has proved popular on AMC in the US and the international nets that run the zombie dramas.

AMC will now run Talking with Chris Hardwick in the off-seasons between the zombie series, with the titular presenter interviewing one guest in-depth in each hour-long instalment.

Sony-backed Embassy Row produces the main talkshow series and will make the new project, which has been given an 11pm Sunday night slot on AMC, starting April 9.

Hardwick, the comedian and Nerdist boss, is among the exec producers.

“Chris H. took our desire to serve the fans of The Walking Dead with an hour of discussion and analysis following each new episode and turned it into the number one talk show on television, and a model that has been widely emulated, but never quite duplicated,” said Joel Stillerman, president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV.

“Talking will have the skin of Talking Dead, the soul of the Nerdist podcast and the guts of a Comic Con panel,” said Hardwick. “I have loved learning how to do a talk show these last six years on Talking Dead, but am eager to expand the format into other areas of pop culture.”