Say what you will about AMC and its endless commitment to The Walking Dead, but they’re one of the few TV companies that has managed to actually work things out with SAG-AFTRA to some extent, where a new deal has now allowed them to temporarily move past the strikes and resume filming on its most important shows.
The shows are Daryl Dixon, the France-set spin-off that airs soon and has already been renewed for season 2, The Ones Who Live, the Rick and Michonne show which is done filming, but is in post-production, and the third is not The Walking Dead, it’s Interview with the Vampire, the lead show of AMC’s expanding Anne Rice-based universe.
The agreement is interim, and it is only for these three shows, albeit they are AMC’s biggest now that things like Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul no longer exist. It’s not a deal with the entire network for everything they make, indefinitely.
We have seen this happened with a few different shows and films, though the deals are few and far between and often represent specific situations rather than broader deals struck with entire networks or streaming services, like this one. Though landing three of AMC’s biggest shows as exceptions is a pretty good get. Here’s what AMC said on an earnings call before all this:
“We greatly value the work of our creative partners and hope these disputes can be resolved as quickly and fairly as possible In the short term, the reality for AMC Networks is that we have a pipeline of finished shows that will allow us to continue to serve our viewers across all of our platforms for the remainder of this year and well into 2024.”
One of those finished shows is Daryl Dixon, where its six episode first season will begin airing on September 10. I’ve seen all of it, but I think the embargo isn’t up until some time next week so I can’t talk about it yet. Interestingly, Negan and Maggie’s Dead City was renewed for a season 2, but it is not included in the deal here. I believe the difference here may be that Interview with the Vampire and Daryl Dixon are both filming in Europe, which Dead City films in New Jersey.
There is still no end in sight for the Writers and Actors strikes to end, as studios continue to fail to effectively negotiate, though proposals are being tossed back and forth. Nothing yet, but the longer this goes on, the longer a content drought is going to be once everyone runs out of already-made shows. Exceptions like the ones here are only a tiny fraction of total productions being indefinitely delayed.
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