The Walking Dead is a ratings smash. The second episode of the show dipped down just the tiniest bit in ratings to 4.7 million viewers, but the third episode attracted a staggering 5.1 million… right on the heels of its 5.3 premiere. There goes everyone’s thoughts of the show merely lucking out on the Halloween airdate- it’s obviously hooked people in quite strongly.
But we’re halfway through the first season of six episodes already, and there’s so many more places to take the show. Good thing that 13-episode second season has been picked up, right?
Well, hold on a minute there. According to The Hollyowood Reporter, the second season won’t be airing till next October.
The reason is being stated as Fearfest, AMC’s annual horror marathon which was used to kick off the show with great success. With new seasons of Breaking Bad and Mad Men hitting in the summer (as well as a new show titled The Killing) there just might not be room for the network to promote it earlier. When a show is standing up on its own legs, however, one would hope we’d get a quicker break between seasons to keep interest high, and even THR says it’s not set in stone just yet. Just extremely likely. The second season hasn’t even started production, after all.
Some good news though- Frank Darabont will write and direct another episode next year. Will he speed up the introduction of Michonne (his favorite character from the comics) just to get to play with her? Imagine, Darabont dabbling in spaghetti western kung-fu…