As we have been reporting over the past few days, behind-the-scenes shakeups for AMC’s The Walking Dead had many of us wondering if the season 2 premiere date would be affected. The premiere date that was announced at Comic-Con. Less than one week ago. When they actually TOLD US to take out our smart phones and tweet the news.
Today AMC put those fears to (still somewhat uneasy) rest with this statement:
The Walking Dead’s Glen Mazzara, writer and executive producer, is expanding his responsibilities to assume the role of showrunner. AMC is grateful to executive producer, writer and pilot director Frank Darabont whose contributions to the success of The Walking Dead are innumerable. We continue to discuss his ongoing role with the series.
Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead graphic novels, executive producer and writer on the series, will remain in this role and will continue to steward the brand. Gale Anne Hurd will remain in her role as executive producer. The production continues on schedule for an Oct. 16 premiere.
Well, okay then, I’m keeping the date on my calendar IN PEN, so they’d better not have to revise that October 16 premiere date.
Which means that their announcement earlier this week about international release dates should also hold, and it is VERY cool:
Los Angeles, CA – July 25, 2011 –Just off the heels of Comic Con, Fox International Channels (FIC) today announced October 17th as the kickoff launch date for the highly anticipated second season of the television series The Walking Dead.
Once again, a few hours after AMC’s premiere Sunday, October 16th, FIC will begin its second season rollout on Monday, October 17th. All FIC markets will be launching the first episode during the week of October 17th and before the second episode is released in the US.
“The Walking Dead audience wants to see this show live,” said Sharon Tal Yguado, SVP of Scripted Programming. “The first season became a hyped global water cooler event and we feel obligated to bring the show to international viewers right after its US launch.”
Second season of The Walking Dead will reach FOX audiences in 122 countries, speaking 35 languages and will be seen by over 200 million internationally. Markets include: Australia, UK, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Balkans, Baltic, Norway, Netherlands, all Latin America, all Middle East, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Africa.
FIC and AMC are working closely on a global marketing campaign and communication strategy for this year’s thirteen episode series.
Season one of The Walking Dead marked the best performance for a US cable show in the international market. It delivered record breaking ratings in both the US and internationally. It was nominated for several awards including but not limited to: Best Television Series Drama at the 68th Golden Globes and has also been nominated for three awards for the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards in the US. Internationally, season one won Best Series, Best Writer and Man of The Year for Robert Kirkman at the Stan Lee Awards in the UK and has been nominated by the Seoul International Drama Awards for Best Series and early this year, Fox International Channels won a Promax Award for best global campaign for the first season.
Such great news! With international social networking having such a big impact on the proliferation of spoilers, as well as the fact that international friends simply want to talk online about the show, this decision is quite welcome. Well done, AMC and FIC. And all the best to the new showrunner and to the cast, crew, and creatives as they make their way through the production of this very horrible, very excellent show.
