Showing the staying power of even the most tenacious of the show’s “walkers,” AMC tentpole The Walking Dead has been renewed for yet another season. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, the 7th season chronicling the sprawling apocalyptic wasteland that hosts everyone’s favorite band of survivors has been slated to air in October, 2016
Given the show’s status as one of the biggest series on TV, the decision by AMC to pull the trigger for season 7 is hardly a surprising one — a point underlined by AMC president Charlie Collier today.
“Thank goodness someone had a Magic 8-Ball with them in our many long internal meetings about these renewals,” quipped Collier in a statement regarding the renewal.
“All joking aside,” Collier continued, “we are so proud to share these shows with fans who have been so passionate, communicative and engaged. We are grateful for and continually impressed by the talent, effort and excellence on continuous display by (The Walking Dead executive producers) Robert Kirkman, Scott Gimple, (Talking Dead host) Chris Hardwick and the many people with whom we partner to make these unique shows possible. The result: More Walking and Talking. Hooray.”
The “Talking” Collier refers to at the end there is the show’s sidecar series, Talking Dead, a talk show that dissects each episode immediately after airing with celebrity guests, hosted by Nerdist extraordinaire Chris Hardwick.
The popularity of the zombie thriller has only grown since its addictive six-episode debut in 2010, and it seems to be showing no signs of slowing down. As EW reports, the series is number one on TV among the coveted 18-49-year-old demographic, and regularly pulls in between 15-18 million viewers each week.
Showing the network certainly knows how to capitalize on a good thing, AMC has doubled down (or tripled if you count Talking Dead) on its zombie phenom, airing a spinoff series that premiered last August, Fear the Walking Dead, which exists in the same universe. The latter has also garnered both critical and commercial success in its own right.
