Talking Dead on hiatus until Fear the Walking Dead mid-season finale

In a surprising announcement following Sunday’s show, Talking Dead won’t return until the Fear the Walking Dead mid-season finale in July.

Viewers were surprised to learn that Talking Dead won’t return until the Fear the Walking Dead mid-season finale in July. The announcement came at the end of the episode, which aired following the series premiere of NOS4A2 on AMC. NOS4A2’s debut piggybacked on the season 5 premiere of Fear the Walking Dead, which was probably good for the new series but bad for fans of Chris Hardwick’s aftershow.

Adding to the mystery is the fact that the June 2 episode of Talking Dead was taped on March 31, coinciding with both the Fear the Walking Dead season 5 trailer release at WonderCon in Anaheim and the season 9 finale of The Walking Dead. Eagle-eyed viewers noted that there was a Fear the Walking Dead taping on the Talking Dead audience ticketing site 1iota for March 31, and now we know that it turned out to be the episode of Talking Dead that aired after the Fear the Walking Dead season 5 premiere.

Like many episodes of Talking Dead that air during Fear the Walking Dead, the aftershow was not live and many of the social media responses used during the show were actually in response to the trailer, not from seeing the episode. Given that Talking Dead was taped so early it would be interesting to know whether or not audience members were able to screen the season premiere episode during the taping, as is the standard procedure, or whether they too were shown the trailer.

The only logical explanation for the decision to put Talking Dead on hiatus is that the show tends to suffer in the ratings when it doesn’t follow The Walking Dead or Fear the Walking Dead directly, which is fair because fans want to tune in immediately following the episodes and not wait an hour or more to see it. The projected dropoff in viewers likely factored into the decision to bring it back for the mid-season finale.

Another possible reason for the decision lies in the fact that the show premiered a lot later than usual, and so the cast is on break while the show airs and scheduling talent might have been a challenge. Alycia Debnam-Carey and Colman Domingo, along with showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg, were already in Los Angeles when the show was taped in March.

It’s unfortunate to not be able to tune into Talking Dead during the bulk of Fear’s season because so many exciting things are expected to happen, including Daniel Salazar’s return and Dwight’s arrival on the show. Hopefully Talking Dead makes up for it during the mid-season finale with a supersized show full of special guests. This should be possible given that the mid-season finale overlaps with San Diego Comic-Con, where the cast is expected to make an appearance.

For now, fans will have to wait until July for more Talking Dead.