Chris Hardwick Cleared by AMC to Return to ‘Talking Dead’
After a thorough investigation of the sexual and emotional abuse allegations against Chris Hardwick, AMC has cleared the after-show host to return to Talking Dead for the upcoming Fear the Walking Dead and Walking Dead seasons.
[row]“Following a comprehensive assessment by AMC, working with Ivy Kagan Bierman of the firm Loeb & Loeb, who has considerable experience in this area, Chris Hardwick will return to AMC as the host of Talking Dead and Talking with Chris Hardwick. We take these matters very seriously and given the information available to us after a very careful review, including interviews with numerous individuals, we believe returning Chris to work is the appropriate step,” AMC said in a statement on Wednesday.[/row]
After the allegations were made, AMC pulled Chris Hardwick from hosting Talking Dead, Talking With Chris Hardwick, as well as his scheduled San Deigo Comic-Con panels with both Walking Dead casts and Dr. Who. Yvette Nicole Brown filled in for Hardwick at SDCC and will still host The Walking Dead season 9 preview special on August 5th. Hardwick will be back to hosting Talking Dead after Fear the Walking Dead’s August 12th premiere where Brown will also appear on the couch. Whether or not AMC will still air the second season of Talking With Chris Hardwick, which has already completed filming, is still up in the air.
AMC had said in their initial statement that while they “have had a positive working relationship with Chris Hardwick for many years, we take the troubling allegations that surfaced yesterday very seriously,” and it seems that they are confident with the findings of the over a month-long investigation. Earlier this week, Hardwick’s wife Lydia Hearst told Variety that they were optimistic Chris’s name would be cleared.
[row]“I’ve known him to be nothing less than absolutely loving, compassionate, supportive, not just to myself, but to everyone he knows and works with. He’s a genuinely good man with a good heart…I think fans can expect to see him back on the air soon and maybe hopefully back at Comic-Con next year,” Hearst said.[/row]
Fear the Walking Dead returns on Sunday, August 12th with Christ Hardwick returning to host Talking Dead immediately after. Season 9 of The Walking Dead will premiere on October 7th.
Source: Deadline
Having studied Media & Writing at James Madison University, I always knew that I wanted to do some type of creative writing, but being able to write about zombies, Starks, and superheroes on a daily basis for Fan Fest is my actual dream. While I probably shouldn’t be as proud as I am to be so similar to Nick Miller, I do hope to one day write my own “Pepperwood Chronicles’.
