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AMC sees The Walking Dead spin-offs as possibly more profitable

By Sarabeth Pollock

Khary Payton as Ezekiel, Eleanor Matsuura as Yumiko, Josh McDermitt as Dr. Eugene Porter, Paola Lazaro as Princess - The Walking Dead _ Season 10, Episode 15 - Photo Credit: Jace Downs/AMC
Khary Payton as Ezekiel, Eleanor Matsuura as Yumiko, Josh McDermitt as Dr. Eugene Porter, Paola Lazaro as Princess - The Walking Dead _ Season 10, Episode 15 - Photo Credit: Jace Downs/AMC /
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AMC’s move to end their flagship show The Walking Dead was planned out

For many fans, the announcement that The Walking Dead is ending in 2022 came as a complete – and unnecessary – surprise. Why end the flagship zombie show now, or at all? Why not keep it going and create new stories under the show’s popular moniker? Evidently, this was a carefully planned move at AMC.

According to an article from Bloomberg, AMC’s chief operating officer Ed Carroll says that this was all part of the plan. “We have managed The Walking Dead very carefully and we’ve been planning this for a while. Spinoffs can be more profitable than the initial series.”

AMC has made a nice profit from ad revenue thanks to the worldwide popularity of The Walking Dead. Sure, ratings have fallen over the years but AMC wouldn’t invest so much into two new series and the upcoming Rick Grimes movies if it wasn’t profitable.

Carroll seems to indicate that by creating new IP with original stories and new characters, there is more profit to be made.

It’s a gamble, to be sure.

The Walking Dead’s comic book source material is quickly running out after Robert Kirkman ended the series in 2019, which means that soon enough the show would be creating entirely new stories instead of following along (however closely, or loosely) with the comics. Given this, AMC had a decision to make: Continue with the show, or go in a new direction with new shows set in the universe that TWD established.

It makes sense. But Fear TWD proves that it could be risky if the audience doesn’t catch on right away. Fear TWD had trouble landing a dedicated audience from the very beginning, and then the show’s move in a new direction in season 4 had some fans growing more attached while fans of the earlier seasons walked away. (The same thing happened to TWD when fans grew frustrated with season 7 and 8 but returned for 9 and 10)

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AMC’s move is definitely risky but it could lead to a huge payoff if it keeps The Walking Dead Universe from going stale by staying on the air too long.

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