AMC has shot a pilot for a talk show that focused on one of the network’s own dramas — an idea that’s similar to Bravo’s successful "Watch What Happens: Live," reports Joe Adalian in New York Magazine’s Vulture blog. AMC is reportedly working on creating a talk show examining such signature series as “Walking Dead” and “Mad Men.”
AMC tapped "Watch What Happens" executive producer Michael Davies and his Embassy Row Productions to shoot the pilot. "Watch What Happens," which is hosted by Andy Cohen and capitalizes on the popularity of Bravo’s “Real Housewives” shows, drew an average of 1.5 million viewers for the live talk show, the story points out.
Former MTV personality Chris Hardwick, who recently hosted BBC America’s "Doctor Who" specials, served as the host of the pilot, which focused on discussing "Walking Dead," the story adds.
"It makes plenty of sense for AMC to consider launching a companion talk show to one of its series. As its recent budget battles with producers and studios underscore, it’s not easy making money off of cable dramas, even ones as critically acclaimed and, in the case of ‘Dead,’ highly rated," Adalian writes. "Pairing a drama series with a relatively cheap-to-produce talk show could give AMC a chance to hold on to audience members unlikely to stick around for another showing of ‘Die Hard,’ essentially making a show like ‘Dead’ more of an event rather than a simple one-hour broadcast."
Chris Hardwick would be a great choice, full time, for Walking Dead.
He is a passionate geek with a great sense of humor, but does a fine job at interviewing people.
Hope this works out. Then I’ll have 2 shows I watch on AMC.
This is essentialy what BBC has done with DOCTOR WHO since its return. DOCTOR WHO CONFIDENTIAL runs immediately following WHO on either BBC2 or BBC3 (that joke in Austin Powers with “BBC 8, BBC 9”, etc. seems to have come true in the digital broadcasting era). A similar companion series for TORCHWOOD wasn’t quite as successful but shows it can be done. I just wish they’d stop cutting the CONFIDENTIAL episodes down to 15 minutes when they run in the US & on DVD. It’s nearly a half hour when it runs on BBC and I can’t see any reason for the cuts.