It’s ironic that a show about the living dead cannot seem to die, but for fans of The Walking Dead it’s turning rather tragic. The post-Apocalyptic series makes it’s mid-season return this week, with the fate of a seminal character hanging in the balance. That alone should be enough to invigorate viewers, but The Walking Dead fans have seen it all before: since 2010 they’ve watched beloved characters (and tigers) get eaten, mutilated, bitten and beaten to death.
Like Game Of Thrones, sudden and unexpected mortality is a big part of the show’s appeal. Yet unlike the sword and sorcery epic, which is coming up on its last season, there doesn’t seem to be an end date in sight for The Walking Dead. Viewership has steadily built over the years, from a modest 5M in its US debut to 17M in the middle, before declining again in its current eighth season to around 7M. Although its international appeal remains strong with The Walking Dead as much a pop cultural touchstone now as it was back in 2010, many showrunners and networks would see the writing on the wall.
Not AMC, however, the home of the zombie saga. Outside of your standard merchandise (clothing, figurines, collectibles), they’re now licensing The Walking Dead for theme park rides, it has its own chat show The Talking Dead, a spin-off series Fear Of The Walking Dead, pop culture conventions specific to The Walking Dead fandom, plus the lucrative business of selling into international territories. The AMC are flogging a literal dead horse because … they don’t have much else.
Shows like Halt and Catch Fire, Turn: Washington’s Spies and Better Call Saul – although critically acclaimed – are not massive moneymakers. They’re cult favourites, but they don’t garner massive viewership or external revenue. The success of The Walking Dead props up not only every other show on the network, but the network itself. And people know it: the show has been inundated with lawsuits since its inception.
Original showrunner Frank Darabont (Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption) was fired after the first season due to what was later revealed to be difficult workplace conduct, with the filmmaker suing AMC for breach of contract. The author of The Walking Dead comic series – on which the series is based – Robert Kirkman filed a lawsuit against AMC in late 2017 over issues about not receiving the appropriate percentage of backend profits, which could be as high as one billion. Finally, the family of stuntman John Bernecker are also suing AMC for wrongful death after he was killed when a stunt went wrong on the set of The Walking Dead last year.
With three significant legal battles piling up, AMC have to keep their zombie moneymaker shuffling onwards into oblivion, especially since past hits like Mad Men and Breaking Bad are already in the ground. Previous storylines have moved the narrative towards a natural conclusion – like the investigation of a cure arc in season five – but just as quickly they have been moved away as well. The most watched scripted program in basic cable television, it’s safe to say The Walking Dead will live on for several more years regardless of the quality and decreasing returns for fans. Put simply, it needs to survive so AMC can too.