Two weeks ago, AMC’s “Mad Men” wrapped up its fourth season. And this week their highly anticipated series “The Walking Dead” begins Sunday night it the “Mad Men” time slot.
So why the week off in between? Why not start “The Walking Dead” last week?
Blame Brett Favre.
At least that’s what creator Robert Kirkman says. Seems that Favre and his new team the Vikings were playing his old team, the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football. And AMC figured that the audience for both shows would be a big enough crossover that they decided to wait a week before debuting “The Walking Dead.”
Our original launch date was the the Sunday before. It’s launched with [Fear Fest], so they were actually going to launch it at the end of the first week and then show the second episode on Halloween night, so you’d get two episodes during [Fear Fest]. But that guy—I don’t know who he is, Brett Favre-something—is playing the Green Bay Packers on Sunday and apparently he used to play for that team, so it’s like a big deal or something,” says Kirkman. “They didn’t want to be up against that football game. So we got bumped for a football game … which again is a really smart move because I hear that thing is a ratings magnet and there’d be a lot of zombie fans that are watching that. I thought that was fascinating. I was like, ‘Really? We’re moving?’ … But Halloween night makes a lot more sense.”
So there you go Green Bay and Jets fans. One more reason to dislike Brett Favre.
Oh, after seeing highlights, I just figured they needed another zombie!!
If all AMC cares about is “live” viewers then this makes since, but we have this thing called a DVR now. All I watch “live” is sports anyway, I either DVR all my shows or catch them On-Demand (either via hulu or On-Demand via Verizon). When are these TV networks going to learn that this is 2010, not 1990. If the networks don’t wake up soon and embrace the new way to watch TV, they will end up like the music industry.
There is a reason, Tim from RI. It has to do with ad revenue. How many commercials do you watch when you DVR or OnDemand? I’m guessing, like me and everyone else, none. If we aren’t watching the commercials then the network(s) can’t charge for the time. This means that they have to do something to keep the money flowing in. Until there is some new model for advertising, we’ll be stuck in the world of the 1950’s WRT the say TV shows are produced.