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With two showrunners in three years making The Walking Dead a revolving door for producers, you might think AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan might have some observations on why that particular job eats ’em up and spits ’em out. but no. Instead, he delivers a brilliant demonstration of how to Shut. It. Down. when quizzed on the topic by THR:

The Hollywood Reporter: Why let Mazzara go from The Walking Dead when the show is breaking records? What happened?
Josh Sapan: We love the show, and we admire and cherish the work of everybody involved who made it an extraordinarily well-crafted TV series. … In the case of Glen, we decided mutually to part ways.
THR: But other showrunners have blasted your network. The Shield’s Shawn Ryan said, “It’s a real question now why good showrunners should sell to AMC.” How does that make you feel?
Sapan: We really do believe that people who make great TV shows have a rare capability, and we hold them in extraordinarily high regard. Certainly it would be preferable to have as much continuity as possible. We’ll forge ahead and hope to make great shows and be the best place to work.
THR: So those comments don’t concern you?
Sapan: We’ll do the best we can to be an environment where the best creative people can flourish. We’ll hopefully learn from everything we do.


Nothing to see here!

14 COMMENTS

  1. Dude, you guys are just mad that the writer of the Ghost Rider movie is gonna come in and be the greatest writer of the 21st century.

  2. I don’t understand why people are obsessing over this. If AMC declines to offer an explanation, that’s their business. If Mazzara wants to tell his side of the story in the press, that’s up to him.

    We, the entertainment-consuming public are not owed an explanation from Mazzara or AMC.

  3. Walking Dead is a hideously expensive so to produce and I’m not at all surprised that there is great pressure on the show runner to keep costs under control. My understanding is that Mad Men makes a lot more money for AMC than Walking Dead does which is why there were raises there recently.

  4. My understanding is that Mad Men gets more awards but that WD makes more money,but who knows if either of us is correct.

  5. That’s what was going around, that Mad Men is the prize of AMC, even though Walking Dead is a ratings winner, and they’ll sacrifice whoever to keep costs down.

  6. Mad Men is a period piece…which are extremely costly to produce…I can’t imagine it costs that much more to produce the Walking Dead, even with the make up and, from time to time, CG.

  7. And from a money making standpoint….higher ratings mean higher ad prices which mean higher ad revenues.
    Walking Dead was the most watched show outside of Sunday and Monday night Football this past half-season….those numbers are huge, especially when you consider that they are going head to head against Sunday Night Football….

    Bottom line…regardless of cost….Walking Dead is bringing in big bucks for AMC and everyone involved.

  8. The feeling is that AMC feels the need to keep tight reigns on their big moneymaker. Who knows. Maybe they throw runners off of the show because they might be in a position to become too valuable to let go, and they might ask for a higher salary.

  9. seems premature to throw runners off in worries of them becoming too expensive. Maybe if ratings started to slip. But until then, every ep is making them more money.

  10. “Bottom line…regardless of cost….Walking Dead is bringing in big bucks for AMC and everyone involved.”

    Given that they just expanded Talking Dead to an hour, I’m guessing that Walking Dead makes huge dollars for the network.

  11. From what I understand the producers of Mad Men extracted a rather hefty renewal fee from AMC for seasons 5 and 6, which resulted in budget cuts on almost all other AMC shows including the Walking Dead.

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