The Walking Dead Season 2 Premieres October 16 9PM on AMC

Edit:  The Walking Dead, Season 2 will be helmed by Glen Mazzara, assistant to the show's former showrunner, writer and executive producer, Frank Darabont, who was fired in August.  According to various sources, it sounds like Darabont was unwilling to implement the major budget cuts AMC demanded in the wake of the network's contract negotiations with Matt Weiner of Mad Men--their first original hit series.  The way Kurt Sutter--FX's Sons of Anarchy showrunner--put it, it seems like AMC was stealing from Peter to pay Paul and Darabont was having none of it.

Is that really a viable business strategy for a network that is striving to build on its success anyway?  It seems like such a counterintuitive approach to developing a solid roster of original shows by putting all the chips on one asset even if it is the safest bet.  But I guess that's Hollywood.

From The Hollywood Reporter: "What remains a central mystery, even to those closely involved, is what triggered AMC's move to fire Darabont. As noted, AMC's decision to cut the budget dated to the previous fall, when the network instructed Darabont to produce 13 episodes for a second season, up from six for the first season, for less money. Not only would the show get a lower budget, but AMC also decided that Walking Dead would no longer reap the benefit of a 30 percent tax credit per episode that came with filming in Georgia. Now the network was going to hold on to that money."


According to Kurt Sutter via Twitter, [Matt Weiner, the creator, head writer and showrunner of Mad Men] held AMC hostage, broke their bank, budgets were slashed, shit rolled down hill onto [Vince]gilligan and frank,"... "no one else wants to f*cking say it, but the greed of mad men is killing the other two best shows on tv -- breaking bad and walking dead."


"darabont reacted strongly to slashed budgets. he made mistakes, he was fired. no creative in town will trust AMC to back up their artists,"..."i don't know MW, got no beef with him. just hate that darabont is being demonized. no one has the balls to tell the truth. MM gutted AMC."  Quotes taken from The Huffington Post